


Not what they expected

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: So many things left to say [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cute, Cute Peter Parker, Deaf Clint Barton, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Kid Peter Parker, Kidfic, Manipulative Nick Fury, Mute Peter Parker, Nick Fury is Not Amused, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Precious Peter Parker, Sassy Peter Parker, Sign Language, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:34:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22759486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: The avengers are all set to move into the tower, to work on their team after the debacle with the chittari. They anticipated a lot of things when moving into the tower of Tony Stark, they, however, couldn't account for the man's biggest secret.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Avengers Team, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Series: So many things left to say [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1699867
Comments: 252
Kudos: 1232
Collections: The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, The Best Peter Parker Fluff Fics, The Best Peter Parker Whump Fics, The Best of the Best MCU Fics, ellie marvel fics - read





	1. Tony Starks little secret

**Author's Note:**

> I just got the urge to write a cute Peter is Tony's kid thing and this happened. I just can't deal with how cute he is. Also heads up, Nick Fury is a total asshole in this, so if you like him you'll probably hate my depiction of him here but on the plus side, the team is amazing XD. 
> 
> Also, if you like this story and want to stay up to date one whatever else I'm working on I have a discord channel where I post when things will be updated and reveal new stories before they're posted. The link is on my profile.

“This is going to end badly...I’m thinking, a whole level needing reconstruction.”

Pepper rolled her eyes as Tony droned on about all the bad things that could particularly happen because of the new ‘arrangements’ that had been made. Shield believing that the Avengers should be centrally located to each other had made movements to see the heroes all being with each other in some super-secret base. Naturally Tony said no and when Fury started to kick up a fuss, Tony stated that the Avengers could reside at the tower, one because he owned it and two because he wasn’t leaving it. 

A compromise was made.

Namely that the Avengers were moving into the tower, Tony knew that it just wrankled Fury to know that he had to give into Tony because he needed Iron-man. It left such a warm feeling in the man’s chest and no it wasn’t from the arc reactor, he’d assured the man that as he taunted him on his way out the door of that particular meeting.

Now, some three weeks later it was actually happening and Tony was preparing to meet the team on a lower floor. Go through the paces with them and discuss things as an adult or at least that’s what Pepper was saying he had to do. He was silently making amendments to her demands, but she didn’t need to know that.

Pepper already knew what he was doing, this was not her first time dealing with Tony Stark. “Now listen, you go down there, deal with Fury and the others for an hour or two then you can come on back up here like nothings changed.” She helped adjust his tie.

“Right...Let them move in and all that jazz.”

“Right.” She smiled back. “I’m going to head down to SI office and make sure things are all set up for the next couple of weeks, get things in order so you don’t have to spare time there when you’ll need to be adjusting to your team.”

“Stop smiling at that.” Tony glared disapprovingly. “You’re enjoying that I’m being forced to put up with these ingrates.”

“A little,” Pepper smirked as she stepped back. “A lot.” She admitted.

“Miss Potts, I’m shocked that you would throw your employer to the wolves with such litter regard-”

“You shouldn’t be.” She smiled back as if she hadn’t just said those very words. “You’re already running late don’t think I haven’t noticed. Go.” She pointed to the elevator. “Things are taken care of, you don’t need to worry about anything.”

Tony sighed, looking at his watch he stared back at Pepper. “You’re sure?”

“I promise. Two hours will fly by and nothing’s going to need your attention, we do have people who work here.”

Tony rolled his eyes at her taunting tone, heading for the elevator. “Fine.” He adjusted his tie once more in the elevator as she glowered at him for messing it up. Smiling Tony cleared his throat. “Alright, I can do this. I mean I dealt with Obediah, what’s a one-eyed pirate, some spies, a popsicle-” As Tony began his tirade Pepper spoke up.

“Jarvis take him down.”

“Yes, Miss Potts.”

“Traitor!”

Pepper smirked. “Jarvis, please make sure that he doesn’t have a single reason to cut out of that early. No disruptions.”

“I will do my very best miss Potts.”

Nodding Pepper twisted about to grab her briefcase, with any luck she could finish her work before Tony could have a complete meltdown. 

********

Tony took a deep breath as the elevator came to a stop. “Things all kosher up top J?”

“Everything is as it should be sir.”

Nodding Tony stepped out of the elevator and smiled brightly to his guests. “Hey, welcome. See you found the place alright, granted it’s one of the largest buildings in New York now but people get lost so dang easy nowadays.” Fury was glaring at him, Tony counted that as a win.

“You’re late.”

And there was the Capcicle, oddly enough in street clothes. Jeans, a button-down shirt and a leather jacket, he could almost pass a normal guy, if you didn’t know better that is. “Hey Cap, wow you have street clothes? I honestly thought you walked around in those tights of yours.” Tony smirked at the tight expression that formed on the man’s face even as Barton snickered only to grunt when Romanoff hit him. “Looks good,” Tony added before turning towards the silent Bruce Banner. “Got you a lab all set up, C level below ground so it’s all nicely contained. A science nerds wet dream really but we won’t get into the sordid details in front of these monkeys.”

Bruce smirked. “Thank you, Tony.”

“No problem, can’t have someone of your talent typing away at a typewriter.” He looked to everyone, some glaring, some waiting cautiously. “So, the first big thing. J.”

“Yes, sir.”

Everyone looked around.

“That’s Jarvis, he runs this place, my go-to man when it comes to operations.”

“An AI?”

“Yep.” Tony tapped his nose when Banner got it right. “Same AI that’s in my suits, he's a stand-up guy...Sorta, ya know if he had legs and stuff.” Tony waved his hand to dismiss all of that. “Regardless of his lack of legs, he can and will answer any question you have. Give or deny you access to parts of this place that you’re allowed in and will alert me if you go snooping places you have no right to be snooping in.” Tony turned to look at Natasha. “I’m talking to you, Romanoff.” She smiled in returned. “Good. Now, simple floor plans. This is what I like to call no man's land, this floor is where anybody can hang out. Consider it a common room.”

Everyone nodded, looking around at the expansive space around them.

“Pretty big.” Clint offered at the large space that wasn’t filled with anything but large windows and simple fixtures.

“Yeah, I’ll be ordering furniture and whatnot later this week, so if you have any secret desires for a bean bag chair or tiffany chandeliers let me know.” Tony smiled back at them. “Otherwise each of you will have a designated floor.”

“Wait.” Steve cut off the man earning himself a stern expression from Stark. “A floor?”

Smiling at the man’s confusion, Tony nodded. “Yes, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, you each have a floor. Think of it as an apartment, only you have access to.”

“Even you can’t access it?” Natasha questioned.

Tony sighed, of course, a spy would ask that. “Technically I have access as it’s my building, do I want to raid your underwear drawer, I assure you I do not. It’s your place, I don’t care what you do to it. Guests have to be walked in unless you give someone absolute priveledges to enter your apartment, just tell J if someones planning to come down and he’ll unlock the elevator for them. Otherwise, he’ll keep that thing shut like a blast door no matter how much they curse your name.”

“Good to know.” Natasha smiled, sending Clint a look. He rolled his eyes at his partner.

“Stark.”

Tony hummed as he looked over at the wannabe pirate himself. “Sorry boobla you don’t get a floor.”

Clint snickered, coughing into his hand when Fury sent him a dirty look before sending that same look to Stark who seemed unaffected. “I thought we agreed that this would be a secure facility. I saw on our way up that there’s a large number of offices and workers here.”

“Oh my god!” Tony exclaimed in utter shock. “Are you saying I run a business?” Tony smiled when Fury seemed to only get madder. “Deal with it or get out, frankly you don’t even live here so...Get out anyway.” Tony grinned before turning his attention back to the Avengers. “The rest of you are good to go, pirate Jim here can see himself out at any old time.”

“Stark, the Avengers will be answering to me and my di-”

“Okay, so who wants a tour of their apartment?” Tony cut the man off. “Granted they’re all about the same as far as plans, but there’s a tablet in each one that will allow you to place orders for furniture and whatnot. That way you can make it all homey like, you know since it will be your home.”

“Stark.”

Tony sighed when Captain America himself couldn’t take a hint and use his name. “Yes, Capcicle?” The man’s face twitched at the name, Tony did not feel bad.

“Director Fury was talking to you.”

“And I was ignoring him. Glad we’re on the same page.” Tony winked to the man.

“This was why you weren’t cut out for this.”

Tony scoffed back at Fury and the words that he was sure were meant to hurt but didn’t. “I already knew I wasn’t cut out for this, I remember that little heart to heart. I told you where to stuff it too if I don’t recall because I wouldn’t jump when you said so.” He glanced at Steve. “Sorry, wasn’t in the army don’t take orders that well I’m sure you get that now.” Turning his attention back to Fury, Tony waved a hand to the room around them. “This is my home, this is my roof and these are my rules. Pirates aren’t allowed. The world needs the Avengers, I agree with you there. Didn’t back then, I get it now go you for thinking ahead.” Tony clasped his hands together and shook them on either side of his chest in a hurray movement before allowing them to fall slack. “Get over yourself Fury, we fought that battle, we’ll fight whatever else comes our way but I’m not jumping through hoops to meet your approval. Didn’t do it with my dad sure as hell ain’t going to do it with you.”

Fury’s eyes tightened. “Howard was an amazing scientist an-”

“He was.” Tony agreed wholeheartedly. “He was also a cold bastard that rivaled your own little black heart, I can see how you two might have gotten along.”

“That’s enough!”

Tony whistled when Steve raised his voice. “Woah, I didn’t know you could complain like that, mommy and daddy are talking son-”

“Don’t call me son.” Steve bit out. “Howard was a good man.”

Tony huffed as Steve tried to defend his father. “No, he wasn’t. He was a brilliant scientist, a great inventor, way ahead of his time Steve. But he was not a good man, you knew him for a few good years, I knew him for all my life. I think I knew him better wanna hash that out in a play by play of what all he did After the war?”

That seemed to stall whatever Steve might have been thinking to say next. The super soldier’s jaw tightened but Tony didn’t mock him or push him further now that he’d said his peace.

“Boss.”

“Uh yeah J, in the middle of something pal and I’m pretty sure that Pepper said she’d dismantle you herself if you interrupted this meeting.” Tony joked, chuckling with the others when the AI replied.

“She did. However, she left some leeway in my intrusion upon your important meeting.”

“Oh goodie, I can’t wait to hear this one. Lay it on me J.”

“A violent outburst has occurred on floor 65.”

Everyone frowned, watching Tony carefully as the man sighed. He reached up to rub his brow. “Right...Alright, is it contained or-”

“Did something explode?”

Tony laughed at Steve. “In a manner of speaking, yeah.” He nodded before asking the AI. “J?”

“Containment is in process...Success ratio is dwindling.”

“Wonderful, can’t wait to deal with that.” Tony smiled at the others. “Alright, keep me posted J.”

“Of course sir.”

“What’s up with that?” Clint pointed up at the ceiling as if that was where the AI himself was. “Somethings exploding and you’re just cool with it?”

Tony smiled at the archer. “You will soon come to know that explosions here are the norm, I may not like them, but I deal with them.”

“Is it safe?”

Tony looked back at Steve, smirking at the tight expression that came across the soldier's face. “Well, if we compare it to Nazi’s, something you’ve already dealt with, and space aliens, which you just dealt with...I think you can handle it, well...” Tony frowned as he thought about it a moment. “Maybe. Don’t know to be sure, might be a fun experiment.” Tony smiled at the scowling man. “Relax Rogers, I’ve lived here for quite some time and I haven’t managed to off myself yet have I?”

“Great benchmark man.”

“I try.” Tony smiled at Barton. “So, who’s up for those tours?”

Fury was still glaring as they made to head back to the elevator. “We’re going to talk about this Stark.”

“Sure. Send me an e-mail, I’ll be sure to not accidentally place it in my spam folder.” 

Bruce shook his head as Tony continued to give witty come back at every turn as Fury tried to reign the man in. Truthfully Bruce didn’t think anyone was capable of that, but it was interesting to watch. They climbed into the elevator and without saying a single word the doors shut and began to lower it. A minute went past before it came to a stop.

“Floor 57 sir.”

“Thanks, J.” Stepping off, Tony twisted about and waved his hands. “Who calls dibs?”

The group did smile at that. “Alright I’m joking, I already laid down who had what floor and everything.” Tony turned towards Steve. “Congrats you won.” He trailed further into the place, the group following him as Tony called out to the man. “I didn’t furnish these places cause I have a feeling we all have different opinions on what’s comfortable or not.”

“Probably.” Natasha mused with a dry look to the billionaire.

“Hey now, you love that office chair in Pep’s office that you not so subtly took over when spying on me.” Tony smiled.

Natasha smirked back non-repulsed of the man pointing out her previous activities. “It's a good chair.”

“I bet.” Tony snarked as he threw open a door with a smile at Steve. “Have fun.”

Steve’s eyes widened before sputtering. “W-What?”

“Oh my god all it took to shut up Captain America was some art supplies.” Tony laughed as he clapped the man on the back. “ If I had known that before now I would have brought some paint with me sooner.” Steve sent him a look, but not one of anger for his quip but one of just shock. “I listen, I hate doing it, but I do listen.” Tony glanced at the supplies he’d had brought in. “They got a whole display of your old art at the museum, figured they’d be ecstatic to get newer pieces they can do one of those special before and after exhibits...Only your's spans a few decades." Tony laughed, earning a glower from the man. "Alright, I hear art therapy’s great for one's mental state. Given that you live here now, might be a tad more important than before.”

Steve gave a conflicted look to the man after glancing at the room at large once more. “Tony this is-”

“It's fine.” Tony nodded sensing that the man was overwhelmed, he truly didn't want any ooey gooey moments. It hadn't been what he was going for when he set everyone's apartments up. “It’s your home now, its up to you to fix the rest of the place up. Don’t care if you decide to paint every surface of the place, but at least try to make it somewhat organized? I don’t need some art deco style ruining the floor plan.”

Steve smirked. “I’ll do my best.”

“Great.” Tony patted the man’s shoulder as they stepped out of the room if the look of irritation on Fury’s face said something about how he was doing, Tony figured he was on point with welcoming the team. “Alright next floor.” He clapped his hands and brought the team back towards the elevator, but not before the others peeked into Steve’s new art studio with wonder.

Steve was shaking his head at it all, Bruce chuckled and whispered to the man. “You better get used to this, the other day when he and I were talking about grant funding for this new research project I somehow slipped up enough to say that it was groundbreaking if they could get the funds.”

Steve frowned. “How’s that bad?”

Bruce held the man’s look. “Tony donated a couple million towards their fund. Watch what you say.” He chuckled at the awed look on the man’s face. “For all his faults, Tony does care.”

Steve nodded his head, he’d have to keep that in mind. The man’s personality could be infuriating but he had set aside this space for all of them so as to keep the team close. Sighing he boarded the elevator with the others.

Tony smirked, not at anyone in particular just at himself. He couldn’t wait to see how the rest of this went.

“J, next floor please.”

“Floor 56 sir.”

********

“Miss Potts, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know-Yes...No, I tried. I really really tried but I-No, I know he can’t be disturbed. I know but what should I do?” The panicked woman nodded as she listened to what Pepper Potts was telling her to do. “Ma’am, I really think that this might be a reason to interrupt his meeting.” She winced when the woman began to shout things back at her, clearly forgoing the idea of agreeing with her. Swallowing tightly, the woman managed to get out a soft. “Miss Potts, the precious cargo is missing.” Silence. Then chaos. “I’m so so so sorry!”

********

“You managed to somehow cram an entire archery line in an apartment?” There was utter bafflement in Clint’s voice as he grinned at the sight of it.

“Well, it's not a full-length line-up, but its the best I could do in the confines of this place. At the very least it’ll keep you on your toes.” Tony smiled at Clint. “And there’s a bunch of supplies for you to do your...Arrowy-ness.” He waved at the supplies for the archer to make his own arrows. Clint laughed.

“Right, thanks man that’s quite the spread.”

“No problem also wanted to see about integrating some...High tech versions. I got a few ideas while we were busy with aliens and all that.” Tony rolled his eyes. “But you’re the resident archer so I’ll need your input.”

“You want to make me arrows?”

“Yes.” Tony nodded. “More effective ones.”

Clint whistled. “Don’t think you can, but hey I’ll shoot whatever you hand me.”

Tony grinned. “Great.”

A harsh clearing of a throat, had everyone turning, Fury was once more glaring. “Are we done here, we still have business to discuss about the Avengers initiative. Decorating rooms is not a part of that.”

“Oh I’m sorry, did you get lost on the tour?” Tony called out in a pouting manner. “I can call the tour guide to get you back with your people.”

“Stark.” The man growled. “This is serious.”

“You wanted team bonding, this is team bonding.” He waved his hand to the others. “Don’t you think they need to settle into their places? They’re going to be living here and we will see each other which I think was the point of all of this if I’m not mistaken.”

Fury glared. “We have other things to discuss.”

“Sure,” Tony replied coolly. “But after I show Natasha all the sharp stabby things I got her.” He smiled at the assassin. “I literally didn’t know some of this stuff existed and I made weapons for a living.” Natasha grinned in return.

“Sir.”

Tony’s smile faded. “I ask for two hours of no interruption and this is what I get.” The man uttered in an annoyed voice despite knowing it had been Pepper who had demanded that time go on without disruptions. “What is it J?”

“Miss Potts would like me to send you a message.”

He was admittedly surprised to hear that Pepper who was adamant that he not get out of this meeting was the one interrupting him. He’d taunt her later, but for now Tony waved his hand. “Yeah?”

“The tower is on lockdown procedures.”

They all saw Tony tense, his easy-going nature disappearing in an instant. “What?!” Tony shouted. “What do you mean on lockdown, I literally gave Sophie the easiest job in the world!” He hadn’t but none of them needed to understand that.

“Tony.” Steve stepped forward to try and help calm the man who for the first time since they met actually looked worried about something. He didn’t know what this lockdown procedure was, but if it was anything like what happened at Shield it was bad. He didn’t get to do much as Tony held up a hand to stop him from interrupting. 

“J, for the love of all the microchips you are made of, where is-” He never got to finish that sentence or hear the AI’s reply as footsteps ran down the hallway, little footsteps.

Everyone froze as a tiny body, with brown curls came running down the hallway only to crash into Tony’s legs and wrap an arm around him.

Tony looked down giving a sigh of relief as the boy wrapped himself around Tony’s legs, the boy was clutching tightly to him, his face buried in his leg. “Peter.” The man sighed in relief before he knelt, smiling as he was forced to peel the kid off of himself. “Kid, what have I told you about running away from Sophie?” 

Peter bit his lip then shrugged. 

Tony snorted at the boy's reply. “Don’t try that on me mister, I literally told you this morning not to do it.” 

The boy gave a nod. 

Tony blinked, frowned and muttered. “That just went in one ear and out the other didn’t it?” Peter smiled. “Yeah.” Tony nodded with a smirk of his own. “I figured as much.”

“Stark.”

Tony looked up. “What?” Fury was staring back at him in utter shock. “What? Did someone snap your eye patch or something?” He chuckled.

“W-Who is that?!”

Tony gave the man a bland look, glancing at his son who was frowning now, startled more likely from the man’s shouting and had decided to clutch tighter to him. “Come on, up we go.” He lifted the boy as he stood up. Balancing him on his hip as he gave a fake smile to Fury. “Well, in case you seemed to have blanked out the fact that he’s clinging to me like a monkey, this is Peter, my son.”

“You don’t have a son.” Fury replied bitterly. “I’d know.”

Tony snorted, looking at his son. “Are you mine?”

The boy shrugged.

“Great follow through kid.” Tony laughed at the indecisive boy at such a simple question, he glanced back to a fuming director of shield and uttered. “If you’re wondering why you don’t know of his existence it would be fairly easy to say that I don’t like you much so I didn’t tell you.”

“I know everything about you worth knowing.”

Tony shrugged as if he was replying like Peter before throwing out a careless. “Guess you’re not that great of a spy then...Then again.” He smirked at Natasha. “She didn’t know either.”

Natasha frowned at the inherent poke to her skills. “How?”

“Well, you see...” He looked to his son. “Quiet game.” The boy pouted a moment before covering his ears. Tony smiled then turned to Natasha. “When a mommy and daddy love each other very-”

Clint laughed at the man trying to give Natasha the bird and bees talk, the woman shook her head. “I’ve been at the tower dozens of times.”

He hummed in agreement with that, gently rocking the kid until Peter let his hands fall and wrap them around his neck. Tony smiled back to the kid who was carefully looking around to all the new people before smiling back at Natasha. Tony forced the others to follow along as he made his way back towards the elevator, he'd need to get the kid settled again if he was going to finish dealing with the Avengers. “Cause I made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t to be around when you were.”

“How, he’s your kid. You can’t just outsource your kid.” Tony raised a brow to her as they stopped a few feet from the elevator doors. “You outsourced your kid.” She muttered in surprise.

Tony laughed at the befuddled woman. “Not quite, but close enough.”

“Whose his mother?”

Tony looked back at Fury at the same time that Peter clung tighter to him, sharp little nails digging into him as Peter buried his head into his neck. “Oh I’m sorry are you still asking questions that I have absolutely no intentions of answering?”

“Damn it Stark! This is important, I can't have any exploits of yours causing security breeches!”

Peter recoiled into his father giving a small hiccup as he buried his face further into Tony’s neck and began to shake. Tony’s easy-going attitude went out the proverbial window. “Get out.” He rubbed his sons back as Peter began to give small hiccups of tears. “Now.” When Fury didn’t move, Tony replied in an ice-cold tone. “J, fire up a suit on auto mode. Have it escort director Fury-”

“Tony,” Steve interjected when he saw how south this was going. “He’s leaving.” Steve sent a sharper look to the man who looked surprised to find him going along with Stark. “This is his home sir, and we’re not going to get any business done now.” That much was clear in how defensive Tony was from the directors prying and the upset kid clinging to him.

Fury glared at Steve for a moment, then shot a furious expression towards Stark who was glaring right back at him.

“Sir would you still like me to-”

“Put it on the back burner.” Tony quipped as he stared Fury down while shushing Peter. “I think Cap here has our back.”

Steve cleared his throat. “Sir.”

Fury shook his head. “We’re not done by a long shot Stark.” He looked sharply at Steve before meeting Natasha’s eyes, a silent exchange happened there before the man stalked towards the elevators. 

“Let him out J.”

They watched as the director of Shield got into the elevator, the doors closing as the man glared at all of them. Sighing in relief that the man was gone, Tony smiled in a strained manner to Steve. “Thanks.” Then he turned his sights to his kid who was sniffling into his neck. “Come on bud, scary pirates gone.” He jostled the boy with a smile on his face, it took few times of assuring the boy that no more shouting was going to take place before Peter untucked himself from his father and with a wet face stared back at him.

“I know bud, you don’t like shouting.” Tony sighed as he balanced the kid with on arm and yanked out his handkerchief to wipe at the boy's snotty face. “But Cap here kicked the mean pirate out.” Tony smiled back at Steve when Peter turned to stare at the man uncertainly. “It’s alright bud, he’s a good guy.”

“Hello, Peter.” Steve smiled back at the small boy.

The boy didn’t reply with words but he gave a small shy wave. “Well, that’s about all we’re going to get out of him.” Tony sighed as he cradled the kid back to himself with a deep sigh. “Kid does pretty good with strangers, shouting...Nope.”

“No kid likes shouting,” Clint replied as he stared back at the kid in concern.

Tony huffed when the man didn’t get it, not that he expected him to. After all, the group had just found out he had a kid. “No kidding, but this came with the territory of his original housing.”

“What?”

Tony smiled at the confused group. “Peter hasn’t always lived with me, part of the reason you never knew of his existence.” He held Natasha’s gaze.

“Lives with his m-”

“Nope.” Bit out sharply, stunning the group with how much vitriol laced those words as Tony shook his head dramatically. “We don’t use those words.”

Natasha frowned at the man’s quick interjection. “We don’t?”

Tony smiled tightly. “Long story, bad history blah blah blah. Safe to say the kid was in a...Bad situation.”

“And you were better?”

Tony sent a solid glare towards Barton. “I - To be frank, I was the last person who should have any type of custody over a kid, I’m sure my reputation preceded me all these years.”

“It did.”

Tony huffed. “Thanks, Barton. Point being I had just started to clean up my act, the whole...Kidnapping thing happened which was a boatload of fun and the whole take over by Obadiah, yeah great start...On top of all of that, I didn’t know about him.” The Avengers stared back at him in shock. “Really guys? You’re shocked that his m-That she didn’t tell me?” He snorted at the looks on their faces. "I was cleaning up my act, but I wasn't where I am now." He admitted freely as he rocked Peter in his arms.

“Uh, not to be insensitive or anything.” Bruce coughed a bit. “But...Most woman and I’m being-”

Tony knew where the man was going so he nipped it in the bud. “Know where you’re headed with that Brucey, been there done that half a million times, none of them turned out to be anything. She never told me, I honestly think it was out of spite.” Bruce shrugged earning a smirk from Tony for agreeing with him. “Regardless, I didn’t know for...Too long.” Tony replied. “I do now and he’s here now, most of the time. Can’t seem to win that custody battle.” Tony muttered sourly.

Clint raised a brow. “Past catching up to you?”

Tony snorted back at the man who seemed almost happy to hear that, the bastard that he was. “Good lord I wish that was all it was, no.” Tony made an irritated expression. “I can’t say no when she has a good reason alright? I mean, how can I look at him.” He jostled Peter. “And say no you can’t see your favorite aunt?”

“Aunt?” Natasha threw in surprise.

“Yeah.” Tony nodded. “Peter’s aunt and uncle have been graciously been taking care of him and weren’t aware of the situation either.”

“She didn’t tell them either?” Steve asked, cluing in not to say the word ‘mom’.

Tony smiled. “Spite Steve, Spite.”

The man shook his head. “Why? I mean...He should know.”

“I’m glad we’re all in agreeance that it was a di-A bad thing to do.” He glanced at his son a moment to see if the kid caught his slip up. “It’s settled now, and his aunt and uncle watch out for him when I can’t. Technically speaking I have custody, but I was never going to stop them from taking care of him or seeing him. It works out to our benefit that on paper they have custody and he shared their name.”

“Ah,” Natasha smirked when it all fell into place. “Clever.”

Tony winked. “I’m smart when I have to be.”

“Who was she?” Bruce asked out of curiosity as Tony’s boy tilted his head a bit to stare at him curiously. A smile got him nowhere as the boy looked away shyly.

“I-I can’t get into that right now.” His eyes went to the boy and then back, they all nodded. “Here, let’s head on back up to a more habitual floor and one without weapons so I can let him be free,” Tony smirked at Clint.

“He’d only put an eye out.”

Tony laughed. “I think we’re good with the amount of stuff he crams up his nose thanks.”

Clint smirked, sharing a look with Natasha. The group boarded the elevator and Tony stated. “J take us to Peter’s floor.”

“Alright floor 62.”

Peter twisted in his father's arms, looking at the strangers and then at his dad who was smiling back at him. Peter put his hand in a bunched up form of fingers to his lips and then moved it to the side of his cheek. Tony nodded. “Yeah, bud, home.”

“Wait.” Clint frowned. “He knows sign language?”

“Some.” Tony smiled. “Mostly gibberish to be honest, but yeah, some.”

Clint looked at the boy cautiously. “Is he-”

“No.” Tony shook his head when the archer was going there, it was an easy deduction given that Peter hadn’t talked. “No hearing impairment, just...Necessity.”

The group frowned, Tony smiled back at them before focusing on Peter. “Let's get you a snack huh?” Peter smiled at that, nodding. “Yeah, snacks make everything better.”

The elevator opened and the group stilled, a very upset woman stood there. 

“I am so-so so-”

“Sophie.” Tony smiled at the crying woman. “It's fine.”

“But Mr. Stark you had a mee-” Her eyes went to the Avengers and then back to Mr. Stark. “OH god, I am so so-”

Tony chuckled. “It’s fine, he wasn’t too keen on me going anywhere today and I knew it was a roll of the dice when he found out I was gonna be in the tower somewhere rather than at headquarters.”

She sighed. “Still, I couldn’t find him and I was just so frantic-”

“Its fine, he’s good aren’t you Pete?” The boy shrugged, earning a laugh from his father and some chuckles from the others. “That’s not nice, Sophie was worried about you.” Peter gave a nod. “Right.” Tony smiled back at the woman who was wiping at her face. “I got him from here.”

“Are you sure? I can take him and you can get-”

Peter shook his head dramatically and fell forward to wrap his arms around Tony’s neck, holding on tightly.

Tony smiled, nodded his head to the boy's clear answer. “Yep, gonna be a day.”

Sophie smiled tearfully. “I could though.”

“It's fine, we’ll see you tomorrow.” The group got out of the elevator as he said this, allowing the woman to get back in.

Tony sighed, smiling tighter as Sophie gave a small chuckle. “Bye Peter.” Despite his earlier pronouncements of not wanting to be near her anymore, the boy waved. The doors shut and Tony sent a scowl at his son who turned to smile at him now that his babysitter was gone. Tony sighed. “Not okay little man, let's go, snack time and then I think you need a nap.”

The boy shook his head back and forth his hands coming up to say the word no.

Tony huffed. “Don’t care how you say it, kid, nap time is a must and you should have counted on that one.” Shaking his head Tony lead the group into the kitchen where he set Peter on the counter and turned to rifle through the things already set up for Peter.

“Yogurt?” He turned to look, Peter shook his head. Tony nodded, moving things about in the fridge. “Cheese stick?” He glanced back. Peter shook his head. Tony sighed and went back into the fridge.

The others smirked as the boy seemed to take great glee in saying no, whether that was because he was just enjoying saying no to his dad or was simply being a picky kid when it came to snacks they didn’t know. The back and forth continued for a while before at long last Tony sighed inside the fridge and called out. “How about a Ferrari?” He looked back and nodded upon seeing the kid shake his head. Coming out of the fridge to send his son an ill impressed look as he folded his arms over his chest and took pride in saying. “Ferrari's not food kid, nice try.”

Peter paused upon hearing that, he stuck a finger in his mouth a moment as he thought about that, obviously catching onto his father playing him. The boy quickly made the sign for cheese. 

“Right.” Tony rolled his eyes as he turned to get the kid a cheese stick, unwrapping it he handed it to the kid and put him back on the ground. “Alright, go play I’m not leaving the floor.”

Peter looked up at him skeptically, Tony chuckled when the kid didn’t seem to buy it. “I’m not,” Tony smirked as the boy began to munch on his cheese stick all while staring at him. “I’ll be over there talking with my friends, okay?” He pointed to the nearby lounge.

That seemed to be an acceptable answer as Peter gave a nod and wandered off as Tony sighed, Tony sent them all a tired expression before asking. “Cheese stick anyone?”

They all shook their heads. “Right, well let's go over here where I’m apparently approved to do business.” The group chuckled as the man fell into a comfortable chair before a fireplace. The others took up places on the nearby chairs and couches. Natasha taking her seat on the bench of the fireplace, leaning back just enough to watch Peter who was playing with toys.

“Eyes forward Romanoff.”

The woman smirked, looking back at Tony. “How long have you had him?”

“A while.” Tony quipped back choosing to not answer that particular question. “And as I said before it’s more of a rental.” The woman scoffed, Tony chuckled. “His aunt and uncle get him most nights since I’ve got such a crazy schedule, but I’m there as often as I can and I drag him here whenever I think I can play hooky on the investors. FYI they think he’s adorable and I’m allowed to get away with a lot more now than I ever could before him.” The others rolled their eyes at the prospect of the man using his own son for his personal gain. “Don’t give me those judgy looks, we played hooky and went to the zoo.”

“Sure your investors loved that,” Clint smirked.

“Well, I gave them a tech demo that made them a cool 50mil so I think they’re fine with Pete liking polar bears.”

Clint laughed. “Nice.”

“I try.” The man shrugged before turning his sights back on Natasha. “Don’t go digging alright."

She raised a brow at how closed off the man appeared to be when it came to Peter’s past. “She a spy?”

Tony snorted. “Jesus Christ Romanoff, this isn’t some conspiracy theory.”

“Was she?”

Tony frowned at the woman who continued to press the issue, stayed silent a moment and then uttered in a strained tone of voice. “No...Words out on her boy toy.”

“Ouch,” Natasha replied. “How’d that story end?”

“Plane crashed...Pete was almost four, they just so happened to leave him with his aunt and uncle.”

“Happened or planned?” Bruce asked as he cleaned his glasses.

“Don’t really care why. He’s here and they...They’re gone, can’t say she got what she deserved because for all her faults she brought him into the world. Do I think they were out of their fucking minds to jeopardize Peter in their sick little venture? Yeah, yeah I do. Can I forgive them for that, no.”

“Who was he?” 

Tony gave a bland look to Natasha who now seemed set on getting information about Peter's adoptive father. “If I give you his name will you leave it alone or will you go searching for every dirty detail you can find like I think you will?”

“Did you seriously just ask a spy not to go digging for dirt?” Clint smiled, Natasha gave a nod in return.

“Ugh, I expect some sliver of loyalty you know. Digging up that sordid past isn’t going to do anyone any good...Other than maybe making your pirate boss think he has the leg up on me which he doesn’t.” Tony smiled at Natasha as he said with a dead tone. “He goes anywhere near Peter’s other family or Peter, I will have an army of those suits rain hellfire upon him and his little merry band of jackasses.”

Natasha mimed zipping her lips shut, Tony nodded. “Richard Parker.”

“Hmm...I think- I mean that name...It can’t b-”

“You’ve heard it?” Tony sent Bruce a look the man frowned, obviously conflicted. Tony gave a nod at the man’s apparent doubts. “Yeah, he’s the one.”

Bruce frowned. “No.” He shook his head when it clicked in his head.

“Yeah.”

“No.”

Tony glared. “Yes, Bruce.”

The others had watched the pair go back and forth, Steve was the one to ask. “What’s the deal? Whose Richard Parker?”

Bruce swallowed tightly looking over to Steve. “Geneticist...Like, top of...Jesus Christ Tony. Him?”

Tony smiled sardonically. “Only the best for Peter.”

“That’s not funny.” Bruce scowled.

“Did I say it was funny?” Tony threw back. “Just the card he and I were dealt.”

“Fill me in.” Natasha smiled at Bruce knowing he would be far less likely to close up. “Famous scientist?”

“Infamous,” Bruce told the woman. “Infamous.”

“Most people with that title aren’t that great.” Clint couldn’t help but point out.

“He’s not really going to impress you.” Tony drawled. “Was working on some stuff that was basically paramount to inhumane experimentation on live humans. Oh, who am I kidding? It was exactly that.” Tony stated bitterly the group's eyes widened. Tony looked at Steve. “I know you signed on the dotted line back in the day, make no mistake they did not.” Steve tensed. “What the poor and desperate won’t do right?” He gave a mirthless laugh at the knowledge of what the people had done.

“What did he do to them?”

Tony shook his head, waving his hand to Bruce as he just couldn’t go there. “It...Steve, I don’t know how much you grasp on...Genes and all that, but if you start to tear things apart. Go down to the very base level of stuff you can really mess things up. Mutations, things that are spontaneous and uncontrollable.” Bruce held the man’s gaze. “People are not meant to survive such things, spontaneous mutations happen in everyday life...Most fizzle out and are harmless. Some aren’t, but mutations aren’t meant to be forced, they aren’t even supposed to be done on live animals because of it being so inhumane...For experiments like that to happen on a person, a live person.” Bruce shook his head having gone a tad paler as he considered the ramifications. “The serum was one thing, my accident...This was ripping people apart and trying to put them back together however they saw fit.”

Steve grit his teeth. “They weren’t caught?”

Tony snorted. “Missed the plane crash?” He taunted. “He was cunning Steve, he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was but he was smart enough to get away with it for far longer than he should have. Thankfully he didn’t have a loyal following as Hitler did, he had a handful of low-level jockeys who would have thrown him before the cops in a heartbeat if they weren’t paid well and funnily enough the checks bounced.” Tony laughed at that joke. “ He knew that sooner or later things would hit the bricks, she knew that, so they tried to make arrangements to leave when word began to get around about their little enterprise.”

“Can’t get caught if you leave.” Natasha assumed. “Some other country where they’d disappear.”

“Yeah.” Tony huffed. “They were lining things up, from what May told me she knew nothing more about the whole thing. Other than that Richard had gotten a new promotion.” He made finger quotes in the air. “They were planning on taking Peter with them to this...I don’t know property search extravaganza but May said that they’d watch Peter because it was such a long flight and the kid was having...Issues.”

“Then the plane went down,” Clint muttered. “Think Peter’s...Did she know?”

“Don’t know. All I know is that she didn’t fight on keeping the kid with her, not a shocker given what I know now. Hell, I’m thankful for it cause, in the end, there wasn’t much left of those two.” The group grimaced at that, well most did, Natasha just smirked.

“May and Ben raised Peter, it was only a few months after they died that May and Ben approached me. They found info about the kid in his mother's things and wanted to see if it was true. He was four when I first met him...When I learned about him.” Tony smiled. “Funny thing is I thought that May and Ben might try to do the whole we raised your kid you owe us thing.” He shook his head, he couldn’t have been more wrong if he tried. “All they did was beg that I don’t cut them out of his life, that just because they weren't related by blood didn't mean they didn't love the kid to death.” He huffed in laughter, looking back to the Avengers. “How that kid wound up in their hands after the shit show that was his mother and adoptive father, I’ll never know. Richard was a right bastard down to his very core but his brother's a saint. Some damn good luck, we made arrangements, I started spending time with him and bit by bit we were able to explain things to him. He remembers Richard and his mom of course, but they aren’t...Good memories.” Tony reached up to loosen his tie. He sighed looking back at Steve. “You have different memories than I do about my dad, I think he was a cold-hearted bastard and you won't convince me otherwise, but you can be sure that all of us...We’d be on the same page about these folks Steve. There’s no place in this world for people like them, I might be a shit father at the end of the day I don’t know...But I have never once let me kid see others being tortured and my father didn't make it a practice either so I think we're a step up.”

Steve flinched. “He saw that?”

“Saw enough,” Tony told them. “I have paid the most outlandish of costs to have the best child psychologists look at him and you wanna know what they all tell me? Hope he forgets, that he was too young and didn’t understand. Hope he forgets, that’s not an answer that’s a wish and a prayer.” Tony scoffed. “Meanwhile they can’t give me a single thing about him not using his words because of said trauma, how’s he gonna forget that?”

Bruce sighed. “Scientifically speaking, he’s got a good chance and language development-”

“I know.” Tony hissed. “But until then, how do you explain to a six-year-old that no I don’t know what happened to the man missing an arm.” Tony waved his hand in the air. “Because I sure as hell don’t have a clue.”

Bruce shook his head. “I don’t know either...It's not something anyone is really equipped to deal with but you’re managing.”

“And yet that never feels like enough.”

“Never will.” Clint supplied evenly before telling the conflicted man who looked more broken now than ever before. “You can do everything right and still feel like a failure, do one thing wrong and think its the end of the world. At the end of the day, all that matters is if they’re safe and happy, you can manage those two and you’re golden. They don’t have to love you for it, but those are what makes a good dad.”

Tony frowned back at the archer, Clint smirked. Tony shook his head when he stared at the man for a moment, too long of a moment as he processed the man’s words. “No.” 

Clint chuckled when he knew it clicked in the man’s mind. “Two.”

“Two?” Steve glanced at the man in surprise.

“Two.” Natasha sighed. “And they’re adorable.”

The group looked between the pair of them shocked to hear the spy talk about Barton’s family. “Wait. Are you-” Tony waved a hand between the two spies only to laugh when they glared at him. “Just checking.” He smirked.

“No, my wife and kids are...Off record.”

Tony smiled, smart man. “Good. So, two?”

Clint chuckled. “Yeah, Cooper and Lila. Cooper’s almost ten now and Lila’s probably right around Peter’s age, you said he was six?”

“Yeah, nearly seven.” Tony nodded.

“Yeah, same age then.” Clint chuckled. “Never would have pegged you as a dad.”

Tony scoffed. “Right back at you...Wait, do your kids play with sharp pointy sticks like daddy?”

Clint snorted at the man’s taunting question. “No, and no they don’t know what I do either.”

“Let me guess...They think you’re some history reenactment artist who plays as an Indian.”

Clint glared at the man who chuckled. “Hey, it's reasonable.”

“It’s really not.” 

A loud crash had them jumping, Tony sighed. “Peter?” He called out, waiting. Small padded feet came running their way. Tony grunted when Peter ran and jumped up onto the chair with him knocking the air out of him. “Great catch buddy.” Tony groaned much to the others amusement. “What was the crash?” Peter looked up at him and then shook his head. Tony frowned when the boy didn't even try to explain himself. “Alright...J?”

“It would appear that young sir toppled over the concept preview for your next meeting.”

Tony snorted, looking at the boy who looked away sharply. “That’s one way to stop me from going to the meeting, better question though, what were you doing in my office?” He jostled the kid. “You know better.”

Peter held up his hand, Tony looked at it and sighed upon seeing how red it was. “Alright...Again, red pens aren’t fancier if they come from my office, you have a whole stack of them in there.” Tony reminded the boy who was shaking his head. “Yes, you do and you wanna know how I know this? Cause Pepper told me to stop getting you red pens.”

The group chuckled as the man tried bravely to make the kid understand the error of his ways, it was easy to see that he was too soft on the kid and spent more time smiling and laughing than actually trying to reinforce the lesson. Finally, Tony swatted the kid's rump and lowered him down. “Go clean that up.”

Peter stuck his pinky and thumbs out of his hands and made a downward motion, Tony snorted. “Yes now, go.” He laughed as the boy ran off. Shaking his head Tony looked Clint in the eye. “You get asked that too right?”

“Every day.”

“Good, glad to know I’m not the only one.”

“What’s with the sign language? Did you teach him?” Steve asked as he watched the boy go racing off down the hallway.

“It's a great way for kids to develop language skills,” Bruce stated. “And if he’s not talking otherwise it’s a good start.”

“That.” Tony nodded. “And a great way not to get hit upside the head by making too much noise.”

The group stared back at him in horror, and the dawning looks of outrage. Tony rolled his eyes, he knew where that was going and it hurt to know they suspected him. “If any of you even utters the words did you hit him I will eject you so fast your heads will turn. Not me, Richard.” Tony hissed back at them, group tensed a bit for having mistakenly judged the man. “Kid would throw tantrums, he’d get punished. Learned pretty quick to stay quiet, the one good thing his mom did was teach him some sign language...Though I have doubts as to whether that was for his benefit or her own.” Tony shrugged. “Regardless he learned fast that talking was a bad thing, I think I’ve heard his voice maybe a dozen times? Hard to say, normally it’s only one word at a time and it has to be something really important to get him to speak up.”

“So when Fury lost his temper,” Steve uttered softly. “He thought-”

“Yep.” Tony nodded before explaining in a dead tone. “I don’t care what tiffs we get into, I’m more than ready to raise my voice and go toe to toe with you all but we don’t do it around him.”

“Fair.” Natasha smiled. “Won’t hear me complaining.”

“Good...Knew I liked you for a reason and not just because you’re a badass.” 

Natasha grinned at the man’s compliment. “I’m their favorite aunt.” He waved to Clint.

“Ah.” Tony nodded. “Because what kid wouldn’t love a super spy as an aunt?”

Clint laughed. “Right?”

“Kid might be jealous of that if he understood what a spy was,” Tony replied in kind. “But he loves Pepper so I think I got a good alternative.” Tony sent a curious look towards Barton. “So, gotta ask, how does the whole shield spy thing go if you have kids and a wife?”

“Fly back spend a week or two, then go back to shield.”

“Rough deal.”

Barton shrugged. “We make it work.”

“Gonna do the same gig from here?” Tony questioned, nodding along when Clint said yeah. “Great, you can take the Quinjet.”

Clint’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

“It’s faster, get you there in time for dinner...Wherever that might be.” Tony smirked knowing better than to ask for that information. “You can take it pretty much anytime unless I have some fancy-schmancy thing I got to do for SI, I refuse to fly commercial especially not when I take Peter with me.”

“You take him abroad?”

“Sure.” Tony shrugged. “Gotta let the kid see other places, though I did learn that he is not a fan of polish sausage.” Tony chuckled. “I have never been handed more half masticated food in my life and I hate being handed paperwork.” Tony scoffed. “Boy was that an eye-opener.”

“No kidding.” Clint chuckled. “But hey, you didn’t have to do the diaper phase of things.”

“True.” Tony nodded approvingly. “Pretty sure I’d take that if it got him to talk more.”

The man sobered at that. “Yeah, sorry man.”

Tony shrugged he didn’t want to talk about this anymore so he moved forward. “It is what it is...Look, your floors are secure but I’m gonna have to put in a small itty bitty clause in there.” The group frowned. “Peter technically has access to everything that’s not potentially dangerous and I know there are some rooms that are about to be occupied where dangerous is a tame word.” He glanced at Natasha. “So, until I get that nice little upgrade in there so he can’t barge in on you lot, keep an eye out for a kid who likes to touch things. J’s pretty good on keeping an eye on him since he can see everything here but Peter’s quiet...Easy to slip by...As evidenced by his escaping his babysitter.”

“Sure.” Steve nodded. “I can make sure he doesn’t eat any paint.” The man smirked.

“Haha Rogers jokes on you he helped pick out the pretty colors and we already had the talk about not eating the pretty colors.” Steve smiled at that, but Tony refused to let the man get sappy. “Well, I think we’ve wrapped up about anything we needed to and way more that we didn’t thanks to his little rendezvous with your floor.” Tony glanced at Clint. “J will take the rest of you to your floors, you can start getting settled in and learn the lay of the land as it were.”

“Of course.” Bruce smiled.

“Just order whatever you need on the tablet.” Tony glanced at Steve and with a teasing grin said. “It's the square thing that looks really high tech with numbers and buttons and things.”

Steve sighed at the man’s jibe, the others chuckled. “Thanks, Stark.”

Tony chuckled at how put out the man seemed, he did so love doing that. “Hey if you get in a real bind Peter can show you.”

Steve rose from the couch giving a glower to Stark. “I’m going to go get unpacked, we need to talk about the stuff with Fury.”

Tony waved a hand. “Get settled in, I can deal with the pirate...Got a few words to pass along.”

Clint and Natasha smirked at that, they had a pretty good clue as to what words those might be. “Good luck man.” Clint got up and with a pat on Steve’s shoulder said. “Come on Cap, I’ll show you how to use a tablet.”

The man sighed. “I used one at Shield.”

“Did you buy anything?” The man countered. Silence. “Let me show you the amazing thing called Amazon.”

Tony chuckled as the archer pulled the man along, sending a sidelong glance to Natasha who didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave, Tony turned his sights to Bruce. “So J knows what lab is yours, he can take you there any old time. I think I got the things you need to do your research but if anythings missing just let me know.”

“I’m sure there’s more than enough Tony...Though I gotta ask, you sure about this?”

“About what? Giving you a lab?” The man laughed. “I think it’d be pretty stupid not to.”

“No.” Bruce shook his head. “I mean having me here...What with Peter.”

“Ah.” Tony nodded, the man was worried about the other guy. “Well, if it makes you feel better your lab is technically the safest place known to man for the other guy to let off some steam. Your floor’s got some nice features too, but I don’t expect any issues do you?”

“Wha..No, of course not.”

“Then we’re good.”

Bruce sighed. “Tony, I’m dangerous.”

“You said that you’re always angry right? That’s your little trick? Pretty sure you’ve got that under control Banner and even if you don’t we can handle it.” Bruce looked torn about that but it was clear he wasn’t going to argue anymore, at least not right now. “Go get settled in.”

“Sure...Yeah, thanks.” 

Tony watched the man get up and leave, a short pause existed before Natasha spoke up.

“So... A kid.”

Tony snorted. “Real smooth Romanoff.” Tony sent a calculating look to the woman. “Don’t play innocent, I know Fury wants intel, I know you’re going to give him it regardless of what I say. I’ve said my peace, he comes near Peter and I will take great pleasure in making Shield find a new director.”

Natasha smirked. “What kid?”

Tony laughed at her false bravado. “Right...Totally believe that one.”

The woman’s face twisted a bit. “I’ve kept Clint’s family a secret the entire time, Fury might know he exists but he doesn’t really care. He wants a leg up over you like you said if I say it's not worth it, he’ll probably listen.”

Tony gave the woman a calculating expression. “You’re not going to spill the beans about Richard Parker?”

“Kids been traumatized enough.”

Tony nodded his head. “Thanks.”

She smiled. “He’s a cute kid.”

Tony gave a chuckle. “Yeah, and troublesome to boot.”

“Most are.” She got up and dusted herself off, smirking at Tony. “You’re a good dad Stark, I can tell.”

Tony looked back in shock as the spy walked away, he hadn’t anticipated the woman saying something like that to him. Huffing, Tony smirked. “J, tell Pepper the meeting was a success and that Peter’s an adorable little trouble maker who made my day.”

“Message is being relayed.”

Climbing from his seat Tony went in search of the kid, it had been far too quiet since he sent the kid to clean up whatever mess he’d managed to make. Stepping into his office that he kept for the times he was working and playing with Peter at the same time, Tony nodded at the chaos. Peter looked up from where he was using a red pen on some paper.

“Those the contracts to China?” 

The boy shrugged.

“Yeah, thought so...Is it a nice pen?” 

The boy nodded. 

“Cool. How about we get you some paper and you can draw at the table.” 

The boy shrugged. 

“Yeah, that wasn’t really a question, up ya get.” Tony laughed as he bent down and hauled Peter up into his arms with a groan. Chuckling when the boy held up the red pen. “Yeah, it's a good pen kid...I’m gonna need you to charm Pepper for me when she comes in about that paperwork, think you can do that?” 

Peter paused, frowned and then nodded. 

“Great.” Tony kissed the kids brow and twisted about. “Let’s go find you some paper that’s not a ten billion dollar contract.”


	2. Painting with Steve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve finds he has a guest to his studio, he and Peter get a chance to to 'talk' and the artist sets the kid up to pain beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, just wanted you all to know that I have a discord channel where I post updates on when stories will be updated and when things might be delayed. Also, I reveal new stories there before they're posted. So if you're interested find the link in my profile.

Getting used to the apartment which was really an entire floor of a large tower in the middle of New York City was a bit more harrowing than he’d anticipated. Clint had helped him to order some furniture despite Steve’s qualms about accepting more things from Stark. The man clearly didn’t care about the money he’d made, using it to purchase things where ever he saw fit. Steve was thankful for the art studio, more than Stark would probably ever realize but finding that while he was gone one day Stark had all the things that he’d added to his amazon wishlist thing that Clint had shown him was a bit daunting. 

Now a few weeks into their stay at the tower, a few haphazard meetings between the Avengers and Fury and more shouting matches that Steve would have cared to participate in, the super-soldier was enjoying some time painting in the studio. The large windows in the room made it easy for him to look out at the cityscape around him. It was relaxing as he would glance up from his canvas to the world beyond, all the advancements that had been made between his life in the past and now were startling. Steve wished that he wasn’t the only one who got to see this but was resigned to the fact that the life he left behind was just that, behind him. 

Shaking his head, Steve focused on his painting once more, unscrewing the cap to some viridian green to add to his palette as he perused the painting he was working on. Nodding he grabbed some ocher to add to the already large pallet of colors he was experimenting with. His brush had just dabbed into the moist paint when his eye caught something moving in the periphery of his vision. Steve twisted sharply only to smile when he found a small body staring back at him.

“Hey Peter, wander off from Sophie again?” If there was one thing that the Avengers had come to know it was that for whatever reason Peter didn’t like sticking to one place and rather loved to wander around the tower at all hours of the day much to the poor woman’s anxiety. Seeing the boy nod Steve chuckled. “She know you went on an adventure again?” The boy shrugged, so that was a no. Shaking his head, Steve set down his pallet he hadn’t really gotten one on one time with the kid, he’d mostly shown up to the community floor when everyone was lounging about while Tony was working. Apparently bored of waiting for the man, they kept the kid company before a haggard Tony would come to collect him.

Kneeling down to be at a better height to the quiet child, Steve said. “You know you shouldn’t run off like that, your dad worries.”

Peter gave a nod.

“Alright...Well, I should probably take you back to her.” He chuckled when the boy screwed up his face and shook his head. “Peter, she’s going to worry when she can’t find you.” The boy shrugged, dismissing such an idea as he looked around the room before darting around Steve. The man stood in a hurry turning to stop the kid from getting into anything he shouldn’t only to smile when Peter knelt down before one of his finished paintings. Walking over he stared down at the boy who glanced up at him with a smile. “You like it?” The boy nodded, reaching out to point at something in the painting without ever touching it much to Steve’s surprise. Glancing to it, Steve smirked at what the boy was pointing out. “That’s central park, have you been there?” 

Peter nodded his head before looking about to the other paintings and crawling to another one. Steve followed him only to watch on as the boy pointed at something and made the hand sign that was lost on him, frowning at the boy's lack of speech he quickly smiled when Peter looked up at him and made the same sign. 

Sighing he admitted. “Sorry Peter, I don’t know sign language.” The boy pouted at that before pointing once more to the painting and making the sign. Steve looked from the painting to Peter’s hands. “Ducks?” The boy smiled as he made the sign again. Nodding Steve knelt down once more and tried to make the sign himself only to fumble when it came to actually doing it. He chuckled when the boy frowned at him and reached out to move his fingers appropriately. “Thanks.” The boy nodded seriously as Steve made the sign again only to receive a nod of approval. Chuckling Steve asked. “You like ducks?” Peter smiled back at him. Yeah, that was pretty stupid of him, what kid didn’t? Getting back to his feet Steve watched on as Peter moved about staring at various paintings he’d done since moving in. Assured that the boy was just looking, Steve returned to his present painting. Cleaning off his brush before dipping it into the pain and adding new detail to the current painting, he managed a few brush strokes before his head jerked downward. Peter pulled at his pants and pointed at the painting.

“This one's not done, I’m still working on it. See?” He showed the pallet of paint and the wet paintbrush. The boy made an ‘Oh’ face glancing from the supplies to the painting. Peter pointed at the paint and then himself, Steve watched the boy do it again before smirking. “You want to paint?” The boy nodded a bright smile forming on his face. “Alright.” Steve chuckled as he set down his supplies and moved to grab a smaller canvas for the kid to have fun with. He got a bit of paint onto a fresh sheet of temporary pallet and laid it out, letting Peter choose some colors before applying a liberal amount to the paper and handing him a brush. “Make sure you don’t get any in your mouth alright?” Peter nodded, dipping his paintbrush before making a large swish on the canvas with a bright smile.

Chuckling Steve patted the boy on the head and got up, leaving Peter to paint on the floor as he returned to his own painting. 

He got lost in the painting, time flying by before he was suddenly twisting about at a clearing of a throat. Tony was leaning in the doorway, only to smirk at him. The man’s gaze shot down when Peter ran to him and with paint-covered hands wrapped his arms around the man’s pants, Tony grimaced. “Well, there goes those pants.” He chuckled as he ruffled the kid's curls with a look to Steve.

“Sorry.” The man winced, those suit pants had to be expensive. “Should have given him something to wipe his hands off with.”

Tony scoffed. “You really think you could get a six-year-old to clean his hands willingly?” Steve shrugged. “No Rogers, that doesn’t work.” Chuckling he looked down to his paint-covered son. “What did you get into huh? Testing out paint colors?” Peter shook his head as he pulled on the man and lead him over to the painting on the floor which was more just a mess of colors than an actual form. Tony hummed. “Gonna rock the art scene huh kid?” Peter smiled up at him. Tony sent Steve a curious look. “So, how did this come to be exactly?”

Steve sighed. “Well...He escaped Sophie again.”

Tony snorted. “Oh, I already knew that part I got the frantic message a while ago, but J assured me Peter was safe so I figured I’d let him stretch his wings...Guess I know why J said that.”

Steve smiled inwardly happy to hear that Tony had trusted him with his son. “He’s a good kid, I think he had a lot of fun with the paint.”

“Well, he’s a kid so anything that makes a mess is automatically awesome.” Tony laughed as he glanced around to the various paintings the man had done. “Nice job.” He pointed to one. “Steinway right?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah.”

Tony watched as Peter ran over to a painting and pointed Tony jerked forward scooping the kid up off the floor. “Don’t touch Peter, your hands are-”

“He’s fine. He hasn’t touched anything and it wouldn’t matter if he did.” Steve assured the frantic father who had quickly snatched Peter up.

“Still. We’re learning about boundaries, aren’t we Pete?” The boy pouted much to the men's amusement. “Right, so what were you showing me kiddo?” The boy pointed and then made a sign. “Ducks?”

“Ah, yeah.” Steve walked over smirking at Tony as he made the sign. “I learned something new today.”

Tony laughed. “Taking lessons from a six-year-old?”

“He was kinda upset when I couldn’t do it.”

Tony nodded his head, yeah that made sense Peter felt bad enough when people didn’t understand him but when people got signs wrong in the limited language he did have it bothered him more. “Well, good job on the ducks Rogers.” He smiled at his son who was pointing at the painting which did feature some ducks. “Nice painting.”

Steve blushed a bit at the man's praise. “Thanks.”

“So...Peter here decided to help you get your creative juices flowing?”

Steve chuckled. “Something like that, he was curious so I just set out some paint and gave him a brush.” The man shrugged. “Pretty sure he was just trying to imitate me.”

“Probably. We play computer all the time.” Tony smirked. “Don’t we Peter? Get lots of important work done?” The boy nodded. “Yeah.” Tony smiled as he held the boy. “How about we go back upstairs and clean all this lovely paint off of you before dinner?” The boy shrugged. “Well, I can’t very well take you back to Aunt May if you look more like a painting than a kid.” Peter looked down at himself, at his covered hands which showed more paint than skin. He nodded, making a sign to Tony.

“Yeah, you’re dirty.” Tony laughed, sending an amused look to Steve. “Thanks for making sure he didn’t eat lead paint.”

Steve gave a put out look at that. “None of the paints have lead in them anymore.”

“Bet that was a surprise for you.”

Steve huffed at the man’s taunt before smiling down at Peter. “If you want to come paint again you can.” The boy smiled brightly back at him.

Tony rolled his eyes at how easily Steve gave into his son. “But you have to ask permission first.” He jostled his son, earning a pouting expression. “And no more running off from Sophie kid, you’re going to give her a stroke.” The boy gave a pensive look before shrugging. “Somehow I think you’re okay with that and it’s a bit disturbing to hear that my own son is fine with killing someone.”

“Tony.”

The man laughed at the keen disapproval on Steve’s face for his comment. “Come on underoos lets go get you some clean clothes and some grub before I take you home.” Peter gave a nod, giving a small wave to Steve as they headed for the door. Steve waved back, as they left. 

Shaking his head Steve chuckled, walking over he collected the liberally used supplies and set the drying painting aside. He didn’t know what Peter might have been going for but it was very colorful. Looking back at his painting Steve chuckled when he took notice of a new addition to the present painting. “Ducks.” He shook his head.


	3. Archery with Clint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint finds himself disrupted from practicing his shots, the archer takes the time to speak with the little intruder and teaches him a few things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go folks, Peter interacting with Clint!

Clint hummed as he secured another band of fletching to an arrow, repairing some damage that his latest bout of practice had caused the thing. He’d need to consider getting some other materials, the stuff that Tony gave him was great and all but not up the rigorous amount of abuse that he did on a daily basis. Clint couldn’t hold it against the man though, he truly knew jack shit about arrows as evidenced by the one session they had to discuss the inventor making some new arrows himself. The utter cluelessness of Tony had astounded Clint, as a man who made weapons for the majority of his life it was really amusing to know he didn’t understand the basics of what made a good arrow.  Shaking his head, Clint trimmed the excess of the fletch and hummed. Looked good, getting up he poised his bow and notched the arrow. Drawing back he aimed for dead center on the target and in a quick snap sent the arrow flying. A dull thunk sounded as it sank home in the target. Smirking at the result, Clint turned to get another arrow only to pause abruptly when he saw that he was no longer alone.

“Hey, kid.”

Peter looked up from where he was petting a fletch of the feather on a live arrow whose sharpened barb was aimed at the kid's leg. Clint was careful about his approach so as not to startle the boy into accidentally stabbing himself. He gently took the arrow from the kid and with a great sense of relief as it left the boy's hands before he could accidentally stab himself. 

“Here.” He handed some unused fletching to the kid who smiled and began to play with the harmless fluff. Sighing in relief as he tossed the arrow aside, Clint sat down on his stool and watched the boy pet the soft material. How this kid managed to evade that babysitter of his, he’d never understand. Either he was a spy in the making or that woman just really sucked at her job. Clint would leave it to Tony to figure that one out, he was just grateful that he’d caught Peter before he could hurt himself.

The child looked up with a smile and held up the fletching, allowing the archer to take it before he made a hand sign. Clint chuckled. “Yeah, birdie.” The boy blinked in surprise at the man understanding him.

Smirking Clint effortlessly stated in fluent sign. My names Clint.

Peter tilted his head a moment, biting his lip before looking up at the man. Clint frowned when the boy didn’t respond. “Do you understand?”

Peter gave a brief pause before shaking his head, huh so Tony was right the kid's sign language skills were more based around what he needed at the time. He’d probably never been introduced to someone who knew real sign language. Clint repeated the gesture, one hand sign at a time. “My names Clint.”

Peter watched curiously looking back up before pointing to himself. “Your names, Peter.” Clint did the signs before fingerspelling the kid's name. Peter wrinkled his nose at that, it wasn’t as fluent since Clint had a particular sign he used for his name. “Yeah...How about we pick a sign that’s yours huh?”

Peter watched as the man made the sign for his name once more. “That means archery, that’s my name in sign language.” He gestured to all the arrows and the targets around as evidence of why he chose that. “What are you?” He posed the question to the boy fully prepared to play charades if the kid's sign language skills didn’t allow for an actual response. The kid seemed to be thinking about it, he was obviously conflicted about what to do though.

“Do you know how to fingerspell?” He showed the first couple letters in the alphabet, the boy shook his head. “Alright...” That left little room for a resolution in the current conflict they were in. “Do you know how to do your ABC’s at all?” The boy gave an unconvincing nod that had Clint smirking. “Do you know how to spell your name?” The boy frowned, so Clint pressed forward. “It’s Peter. P. E. T. E. R.” He showed the boy in finger spell watching as the boy gazed in amazement as his name was spelled out. “Most people use something that best represents them like their name, I do archery so it makes sense that my name is archery in sign language right?” The boy smiled and nodded. “Here, follow along.” 

Until he could learn more about the kid he might as well teach him how to spell his own name, it was really no different than teaching his own kids...Other than that they didn’t rely on sign language as a means of talking. They knew it because of him, but that was it seeing as the devices he now had given him a hearing acuity that didn’t make it necessary for him to sign all the time. Sliding off of the stool, he took the kid's hand and drew him out of the archery room and away from sharp pointy things and into the front room of his apartment. Sitting on a comfortable couch, Clint smiled and began to teach the kid how to say his name. 

“This is the sign for my name is.” He showed the signs, waiting, watching and helping the kid when he stumbled over it a bit. When the kid had it down, he began to go through the task of teaching him how to spell his name. “Okay, so the letter P, looks like this.” He showed the boy the letter. “That’s what your name begins with, so you’d go my name is and then Fingerspell the rest. So we start with P, then do E.” He showed the sign and made the kid repeat it despite his name not being finished yet. “Good job.” He praised the boy, watching as his face lit up. “So we have P. E. now let's do T.”

******

Tony sighed as he waited for Jarvis to open the elevator for him, walking out into Clint's apartment he was tempted to call out a warning but already knew the man was more than likely expecting him at some point since his son had ditched his babysitter and sought shelter with the archer. Why? Tony had no real clue other than that maybe the boy was curious about the newest residents but he’d already met them. Now it appeared that Peter was determined to get to know the people individually and as much as he found that cute, Tony really wished the kid would stop ditching his babysitter.

He smiled as he came into the room and saw Clint of all people signing to Peter, about ducks. Shaking his head, the inventor called out. “First Steve, now you?”

The archer smirked at the man. “I don’t have paint, but I can sign like the best of them.”

Tony nodded, he knew why that was, of course, but it was nice that the man had kids of his own and was understanding enough to realize that Peter’s issues with talking hindered him enough to need the language. “So, he obviously showed you that he likes ducks.” He referenced the conversation they were in.

“Ah, yeah actually we were talking about the paintings that Steve did.”

“Right.” Tony smiled as the boy launched himself off of the couch to run up to him, Tony returned his gaze to the archer as Peter hugged his legs. “Hope he didn’t bother you too much.”

Clint waved a hand at the man. “Nah, managed to stop him from poking an eye out with an arrow.” He smiled watching as Tony stared wide-eyed. “He liked the fletching.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“The fletching,” Clint muttered when he still only got a blank look he explained exasperatedly. “The feather part?”

Tony chuckled looking down at Peter. “Kid, we really need to talk about this thing with the duck's cause that is not safe.”

“I dealt with it, it's fine,” Clint assured the man. “Then we started talking and I figured that I could find an easier way to talk to him.”

“Oh?”

“Taught him a few signs,” Clint stated proudly before calling out. “Peter, show your dad.”

The boy hopped on his feet making Tony laugh at how excited he apparently was, the boy went through a handful of motions, Tony frowned a moment before looking over at Clint. “Was that his name?”

Clint laughed. “Yep.”

Tony knelt down and smiled at his son. “Did you spell out your name? Do it again.” The boy smiled going through the motions until he came to the fingerspelling portion that had Tony hugging the kid. “Great job!” He looked past to the archer. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“What’s the rest of it?”

Clint shook his head at how clueless Tony was, he knew it wasn’t the man's fault that he didn’t understand sign language to the degree he did but it was rather funny that he didn’t grasp a normal introduction. “He was saying his name is Peter.”

Pulling back from Peter, Tony smiled. “Learned a lot today huh?” Peter nodded with a bright smile. He ruffled the boy's curls. “So proud of you.” He scooped up the boy and with a nod to Clint uttered. “Thanks, been trying to teach him new stuff but I’ll admit I’m not the best at this.”

“You’re learning though, same as him.”

Tony gave a nod, he was doing the best he could. “Come on, let’s go show Pepper what you learned.” Peter gave a nod, as Tony turned, the boy gave a wave to Clint. The archer smirked and waved back.


	4. Rockets with Bruce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce has to ask Tony something and ventures into the man's lab only to be surprised that the man isn't alone while he tinkers on things. The scientist is once more blown away by Tony's blase attitude with throwing his money around and ends up spending some time with Peter, leaving Tony to his own devices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy this week's chapter, featuring Bruce and Peter being science geeks.

Bruce shook his head as he wandered down into Tony’s lab, one of them at least. He was thankful for Jarvis as locating things in the tower could be a maze if you didn’t know where you were actually going. Going down a few short steps in a lower lab Bruce paused just after opening the door, rather than hearing the blaring music that the man was known for when working it was silent in the lab. It wasn’t hard to figure out why though, Bruce smirked as he saw Peter sitting on a stool next to his father as Tony worked on something, Peter was in the process of pushing random buttons on the holographic screen which Tony fixed with hardly any glance to said screen as if he already knew what Peter would be pushing and how to fix it. 

Walking further into the room, Bruce smiled when Peter twisted and caught sight of him. “Working hard I see.”

Tony scoffed as he looked up, smirking at the scientist. “Hardly.” He commented as he held up a watch. 

Bruce frowned, he didn’t know that Tony went around building watches of all things, but before he could voice such a thing the inventor turned to his son.

“Alright, arm up kid.” Peter held up his arm as Tony fiddled with a clasp on the watch, frowning when it was still too big. Shaking his head Tony smirked at the boy and poked him in the side earning a small giggle. “You’re too tiny ya know that? I literally don’t think you could be tinier at this point.” He took back the watch and began to fiddle with the wristband.

“Teaching him time huh?”

Tony snorted before informing the man. “He doesn’t even know his ABC’s reliably Bruce, he can’t read a clock.”

“Then what’s with the watch?”

Tony stopped working to raise a brow at Bruce. “Watch?”

Bruce pointed to the device he was fiddling with. “Oh...Yeah, not a watch.” The inventor smirked with a shake of his head before getting back to work on the thing.

“What is it?” Bruce smiled as Peter reached out and touched a few more buttons on the holographic screen while Tony ignored the ever-present changes Peter was making to what looked like a very impressive piece of technology.

“Its a GPS watch, panic signal all that jazz,” Tony commented as he hummed upon fixing the length of the straps once more only to prod his son. “Arm.” The boy held it out even as he continued to push buttons on the screen with a smile on his face. Tony hummed as he got it to fit better around the boy's small wrist. Nodding he took it back and smiled at a confused Bruce. “Kid keeps running off, ordinarily I just laugh at it cause his poor babysitter can’t keep him still for a minute...But May and Ben said he did it yesterday at their place. Can’t let that happen and seeing as they don’t have an AI built into their apartment to tell them where he’s hiding or wandering off too-”

“Gps watch.” Bruce smiled wanly as he looked to the boy who was ignorant of the severity of the situation. “Is there a reason he wanders?”

“He’s a kid?”

Bruce sighed. “Tony.”

The man shrugged. “If he could answer me I’m sure he’d have a reason.” The man gave him a somewhat pained look. “Communication’s always been an issue Bruce, we get bye but somethings he just doesn’t try to explain.” The man tapped a few things on the watch before telling the AI. “Sync it up J.”

“Syncing...”

Tony smiled back at Bruce. “Now he can’t run off.”

Bruce shook his head. “He could take it off Tony, its a great addition but it's not foolproof.” That made the man frown, feeling bad for having squashed what was some sort of safety for the man he assured the boy's father. “I doubt he’ll mess with it Tony but its something to consider.”

Tony nodded his head, looking at the boy who was currently obliterating his current plans for a security module for the SI servers. He smirked, thank god for backups. “He’ll do okay, we’re getting there on the whole sticking close thing.”

Bruce just hummed, it didn’t appear so given all the boy's wanderings about the tower, but he wasn’t going to put a kibosh on the man’s small belief of reigning in the boy's wanderings. “Where’d he go when he got away from them?”

Tony chuckled. “Their neighbors.” He gave the man a flat look. “Cause ya know, she has cookies.”

Bruce chuckled. “Well seems like a good reason.”

“I’m sure it does in his little noggin,” Tony muttered as he ruffled the boy's curls, smiling when Peter sent him a curious look. “Good job on the blueprints.” He nodded to the boys ‘work’. Peter smiled bouncing a bit in his seat as he continued to work on the project intently.

“You just let him play with it?”

“Sure, why not? He’s curious and the technology is pretty intuitive.”

Bruce sighed. “Tony, he’s six.”

“And the son of a genius...And as much as I hate to say it, the other half of his genes weren’t stupid either.”

Bruce chuckled at Tony’s ability to not say the word mom around the kid. “Was she?”

“Eh...Not as smart as me, but that’s a given with who she shacked up with.”

Bruce winced. “Yeah.”

Tony chuckled at how uncomfortable the man seemed now that he’d brought Peter’s mother into the conversation. “She was good at synth tech.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah...Probably why those two hit it off right?” He shook his head as he thought back to all the reports he managed to dig up about the boy's mother and the woman’s boyfriend.

“Sure.” Bruce sighed as he stared over at Peter who was oblivious to what was going on around him as he tinkered with the blueprints to Tony’s work.

“He’s smart...For his age group, minus the talking bit he’s leaps and bounds ahead of his peers.”

Bruce smirked, talk about a proud dad. “Yeah?”

“Sure. He got first place at his science fair, didn’t you?” He nudged his son who turned and gave a pleased nod.

“That’s great Peter.” Bruce smiled at the boy before looking at Tony once the boy's back was turned. “He...Have help with that?”

“Rude.” Tony glared at the insinuation that he'd done the work for his kid. “And no. Ben might have helped, not sure but he did the most of it.”

Bruce nodded along. “Baking soda volcano?”

Tony laughed at the go-to science fair project. “Nice. And no.” Tony shook his head. “Made a Magnetic bridge with force applications.”

Bruce’s smile fell, he looked to Peter and then back to Tony. “What?”

Tony smirked a pleased grin falling into place as the man clearly underestimated Tony's kid. “Yeah, I think Ben might have helped with the whole gluing of magnets but that’s probably it since the man didn’t know what the kid was really up to.”

“He did that...How?”

“Believe it or not I do show the kid stuff, not just let him dink around with holograms.” Tony waved a hand to a corner of the lab, when Bruce looked he found that there was a whole area that was ‘kiddie’ approved so to speak. There was a table and a microscope along with other science things that a kid could safely use to explore the sciences. “We do experiments together.”

Bruce smiled at how domestic that was, Tony was a genius and yet he took time out of his busy schedule to show Peter his love of science and technology. “Looks fun. I’m sure he enjoys spending time in the lab with you.”

“Oh, he does.” The man beamed. “So much so that I have to haul his tired butt to bed because he falls asleep across his projects.”

Bruce chuckled at the kid needing more sleep than Tony probably realized. “Well, he’s not you and he needs sleep.”

“Oh I know it, I just think it's cute that he tries to stay up.” Tony reached out with a mindless glance to the screen and reverted it back to its previous state. Peter huffed, a small noise that left the ordinarily silent figure before he reached out and shocked Bruce as he reverted it back to what he was doing. Tony arched a brow at the other scientist before telling Peter. “Alright underoos daddy’s got to get some work done and as much as I love your interations of this server recollab it's not quite up to snuff.” Lifting the boy down to the floor he gestured towards the boy's own workstation. “How about you go work on your rocket?”

Peter thought about, glancing from the hologram he’d just been playing with and then to the table where his own projects were. Finally, he nodded and ran off. Tony chuckled at how easily the boy forgot his meddling of Tony’s work in lue of playing with rockets. “You finish those and we can fire them off the roof.” The boy smiled brightly and eagerly fell into his work, leaving Tony to smile back at Bruce. “Pepper won’t let us doing it in the house anymore, she’s mean that way.”

Bruce snorted at the woman’s penchant for reigning in some of Tony's more absurd actions. “I think you mean responsible.”

Tony waved a hand at him. “Eh, it's my house.”

“A house that’s not rocket proof.” Bruce reminded the man. “Anyway, I came down here to talk to you about the storage system in my lab.”

“Oh? It not up to snuff? Thought I got that all handled.” Tony frowned as he tossed the current blueprints aside and pulled up the ones for Banner's lab.

Bruce sighed. “No, Tony it's fine what I’m talking about is the refrigerated section of the storage. There’s a lack of partitions, cross-contamination of supplies is a real threat and since some of those components are-”

“Yeah...Get what you’re saying.” Tony mused as he tapped a finger on the desk, frowning at what laid before him. It was a rather large oversight on his part and it bothered him that he’d allowed it to happen. “The only way to fix it is to uproot the entire storage system and part of the lab's subsystems.”

Bruce winced. “I just wanted to ask if I could store some things here or in another lab, I don’t-”

“I can have it done in a week...Maybe a week and a half.” Tony mused allowed as he began to type things out on the hologram.

“W-What?”

Tony nodded, looking over to the stunned scientist. “I can have it done in a week, two tops.”

“No, Tony.” Bruce shook his head when the man began to type things out to seemingly redo the lab in its entirety. “I didn’t want you to do all of that, I just need to store a few things elsewhere.”

Tony pointed. “But if that’s fixed you can store them there.”

“Well yeah, but that’s too much and it’s really not that big of a deal.”

Tony hummed, looked at the plans and everything that needed to be changed. He nodded and tapped a few things before calling out. “J you got this?”

“Indeed I do sir.”

“Got what?” Bruce glanced from Tony to the ceiling as if he could ask the AI that way.

“He’s giving the orders to fix the lab, if you’ve got any projects started we can move them into Lab two until the renovations done with your lab.”

“Tony.” Bruce sputtered. “No, I didn’t-”

Tony waved a hand at the man. “This is your home Brucey, and I don’t let stuff here be second fiddle to anywhere else. It’s an easy fix if not a bit annoying given it was my oversight, but whatever.” He shrugged back at the stunned man. “How do you feel about rockets?”

Bruce blinked a few times. “I’m sorry?”

“Rockets? I have to admit that it's been a while since I dealt with the kid-friendly version...Namely, I never did it.” Tony uttered. “So...Care to help Peter and I fire some low-grade explosives off the roof?”

Bruce sighed. “Tony, the lab-”

“It’s being taken care of, now rockets?” Tony walked over to Peter’s area of the lab tussling the boy's hair as he stared down at the boy's work where he was coloring the side of the rocket. Looking back up to find Bruce just staring back at him still in shock, Tony smirked. “Welcome to the tower, Bruce.”

The man shook his head in disbelief. “That is too much.”

“Already done so no sense in complaining.” The man countered with a shrug before gesturing to the rocket his son was painting. “This, on the other hand, could use your expertise.”

Bruce rolled his eyes, that wasn’t true but he wandered over regardless. Making a small retort. “We’re talking about this later you know.”

Tony just smiled. “So...How we doing on the rocket front?”

Bruce sighed, smiled at Peter when he looked up at him and showed the rocket he was working on. “Looks good.” Peter smiled and returned to his work, Bruce sent an aggrieved look to Tony who smiled back at him. Shaking his head, Bruce knelt down to be at a better height with Peter. “So, do you know why a rocket goes up into the sky?”

Peter gave a nod. “How?” Bruce quizzed the boy as he saw Tony wander back to his own work. The scientist smiled as Peter showed him where the fuel went on the rocket. “Right, do you know what the fuel is made of?” Peter nodded reaching out to grab a piece of paper that was sprawled on his little desk, he showed the man a small formula. Bruce frowned at it, looked at Peter and asked. “Did you do this on your own?” He tapped the piece of paper, smiling when Peter gave a proud nod back. Bruce looked over to Tony who was deep into his own work, shaking his head at the notion that the man hadn’t just been boasting about his kid being smart Bruce turned back and asked the boy. “Do you want to know how to make it go higher?” The boy bounced on his chair nodding quickly, chuckling Bruce sat down next to the child. “Alright, now if we’re going to make it go higher we need to account for more fuel, so let's add that to the formula before we figure out where to store the excess fuel on the rocket itself.”

Tony looked over as he sent the blueprints off to be tested, smirking when he saw his son nodding along to whatever Bruce was going on about, the pair enamored with the boy's rocket. “Science nerds.” The man chuckled to himself.


	5. Reading with Natasha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While taking it easy one day Natasha finds herself surprised upon having a guest who takes it upon himself to snuggle up to her, it bewilders the spy at how easy the boy trusts those around her.

For once she was the only one out and about on the communal floor, Clint had made a trip back home and despite being invited she’d declined allowing the man to have some personal time with the family that she loved just as much as her partner. As far as she knew, Steve was holed up in his art studio and Banner was part-timing with Shield for the day. Which meant that she got the entire day to herself on the communal floor where giant fluffy chairs resided, and yes, Natasha knew that she could get her own fluffy chair if she so desired, but it wasn’t something that fit in her decor. So she settled for enjoying it when she was here, like today. 

Natasha reached out and picked up her iced tea, taking a sip before setting it back and flipping her book to the next page. She had nowhere to be and nothing to do but relax, a rare thing to be sure. She half expected to have Fury storm in and demand she go undercover for something, but she knew that wouldn’t happen seeing as Stark had literally blacklisted the man from the building after his latest slip up with Starks son. Natasha oddly didn’t feel bad for her boss, the man had it coming when it came to frightening a kid for no good reason. Peter wasn’t a threat to anything, he was just a curious little kid, an adorable little kid. 

Natasha smiled as she flipped to the next page, following along with the story all the while her mind raced about what tomorrow might bring. The next big meeting between the Avengers and shield, she knew that Tony was on edge to have Fury back in the building and that Fury was going to be on the man's ass for refusing him entrance other than these pre-arranged meetings. She hummed to herself, she honestly wasn’t sure what she wanted. Tony to kick Fury out again and piss him off, or see Fury somehow get the upper hand on the inventor. She tapped the edge of her book against her mouth, ultimately shrugging at the notion that Fury might get the better of Stark and then get thrown out, not a bad outcome for her. Smirking Natasha returned her attention to her book, this lasted all of a minute before she lowered it.

There was someone there, she looked over the back of the couch expecting to find someone trying to sneak up on her. Ordinarily, her first guess would be Clint, but she knew for a fact that the man wasn’t there, wouldn’t return for a few more days. Steve was tall enough and loud enough to be caught if he was the one tooling around. No dice. She knew Banner was out of the tower for the day and that Tony wouldn’t come down to this floor unless he needed something. Still, despite all this intel, there was no proof of whoever it was that had gotten the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. Glaring she twisted back around only to jerk backward in surprise, giving off a small laugh when Peter gave a silent wave after startling her.

“Well, aren’t you a little spy in the making?”

Peter smiled back at her, Natasha knew the boy had no clue what she was referring to not really. Spies to the boy were fiction, not real and she wasn’t going to be the one to break his little heart. Tony would have to explain, someday. “What brought you down here hm?”

Peter held his hands up, showing a book to the woman.

“A book?” She smiled before holding up her own. “Come to read with me?” She teased lightly. Peter gave a nod and then much to her surprise clamored up to share the chair with her, smirking she scooted over to allow the boy to sit tightly against her. 

The small child opening his book and intently beginning to read as if he was perfectly content with this new development. She watched him a moment longer before returning to her own book, unlike Clint she didn’t bother to try and ask if Peter’s caretaker knew where he was. It was clear they didn’t, how that woman stayed employed when Natasha and the others ended up watching Peter more than her Natasha wasn’t clear. Regardless, Peter was easy to watch despite his silent disposition the boy didn’t act out, he was just a silent force that wandered the tower. Occasionally asking for a snack from whoever was in the kitchen at the time before joining them for whatever activities they were involved in. Like today where the boy was prepared to read his own book beside her.

So they read.

Natasha did, given the frequency of the boy turning pages he was really just looking at pictures but then again he was only six. Given his language barriers, it wasn’t so odd to think that he might be behind in other things too. She left him to his own devices seeing as he was quiet and entertaining himself. That all changed an hour later, Natasha’s head jerked up to stare at the boy who was suddenly leaning against her. Peter was still awake, still looking through his book but now he was clearly cuddled up to her. Natasha’s brow furrowed unsure what to do in that regard, sure she was close to Clint’s kids, had been there since they were born but Peter was...He didn’t know her and yet he was so easily pacified that she was a good person?

“Peter?”

The boy looked up at her. “Do you know who I am?” The boy nodded his head, alright so they’d been introduced that was a stupid way to address things. “Do you know what I do?” The boy scrunched up his face before shaking his head. “Then how do you know I’m safe?” It was probably wrong of her to instill some sense of fear into the boy, but she knew he wandered and unlike many who wouldn’t hurt the boy, Peter’s link to Tony made him a target.

Peter blinked back at her before making a hand sign, Natasha knew a lot of signs from her time around Clint. A necessity in case his hearing aids broke, but this wasn’t a sign she recognized. “What’s that mean?”

Peter blinked then made the sign again. Natasha sighed when her question got her nowhere. “Can you...Finger spell it?” She’d heard from Clint that he was teaching the boy how to fingerspell things. Broadening his vocabulary whenever they met up with the kid.

Peter bit his lip, thinking hard on that request before shaking his head. “Don’t know how to spell it huh?” Natasha lamented, there wasn’t much she could do about that. “Did Ton-Did your dad say I was safe?” The boy frowned. “Kids sometimes forget that not everyone’s a good guy.” She’d heard Tony talk numerous times about good guys and bad guys around Peter, simple terminology that she hoped might spark some recognition in the kid.

Peter made an ‘oh’ face before pointing at Natasha and making the same sign again as before, Natasha bit the inside of her cheek.

“You don’t know if I’m good or bad, sure you want to cuddle?”

Peter stared back at her confused, the boy held up his book a moment later. Natasha smiled. “Yes, we’re reading together.” The boy nodded a small smile coming to his face. Sighing, Natasha returned to her book silently telling herself to remind Tony that he needed to tell the kid to be more careful. The spy rolled her eyes when she felt Peter lay his head back down on her to continue reading, this kid had no sense of survival instincts. Given who his father was, that made an alarming amount of sense.

It wasn’t until another hour passed that Tony himself came to collect the kid, Natasha arched a brow at the man. “Sophie needs a better job.”

Tony chuckled at the snarky retort to his arrival. “Sophie’s fine, it’s him that needs more work.”

“Don’t think so, pretty easy kid.” She glanced at Peter who had fallen to sleep against her some half an hour ago. “Granted he’s got zero sense when it comes to survival.”

“What?”

She smiled back at the on guard man. “He just curled up with me with his book, he doesn’t know me or what I do. He trusts too easily.”

Tony gave a bland look to the woman. “Romanoff, he’s six. He is not some international crime lord that should be quaking at the utterance of your name. He’s a kid with a picture book who wanted to be cuddled.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t say he needs to be taught that you’re scary.” Tony scoffed. “Because you’re not, you and I both know it that you’re not about to hurt him.” 

“Of course not.” She replied in kind. “But there are others who don’t care about that.”

“Then it’s the others that I should be warning him about then huh?” Tony smiled sharply back at the spy. 

Giving up on her attempts to drive that particular point home to Tony when the man was clearly sticking to his guns, she informed the man. “I tried to talk to him...Didn’t mesh well with his lack of speech.”

“Go figure,” Tony muttered as he came forward and gently extracted his son from Natasha’s space. Cradling the sleeping boy against himself as the spy adjusted herself in the seat once more.

“He kept making a sign when I told him that he didn’t know me.”

“Oh? What sign?” He was genuinely curious to know what sign his son might have made that would confuse the woman given her history with Barton. He watched as Natasha replicated the sign his son had made, Tony chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not ASL.”

“It’s not?” She frowned. “What is it?”

“It’s Peter’s version of sign language...Made up words cause he didn’t know the real signs.” The spy nodded, but the question was still clearly there. Tony sighed, twisting his head to lay against his sons, Tony told the spy. “I can only guess what he really meant you know? But if I had to, given the sign and the context of him curling up with you. He was telling you that he knew you were safe because you were like May.”

“His aunt?”

Tony acknowledged. “May’s always cuddling him, reading with him and whatnot. The fact that you let him up there with you was just the kind of in he needed.” The man smirked and with a smug sense of joy told the woman. “You showed him that you’re good Romanoff, you’re the one who was behind the uptake, not him.” He chuckled at the glaring spy. 

“He shouldn’t be so easy going.”

“Again...Six.” Tony gave her a bland look as he turned to head back to the elevator. “And for your information Romanoff, the sign means family to him.” 

Natasha’s eyes widened as the man and his son disappeared, she looked down at the book that Tony had left behind. The kid's book, she picked it up and looked it over. Smirking when she saw that it was some child's version of a science book. “Figures.” She muttered before tossing it onto the nearby coffee table. Sitting back in her chair, the spy found it far roomier than it had been before, naturally, this was because the small body had been removed from the seat. She sent a glare down at the now unoccupied space where the child had been curled up against her as if she really was family. Reading her book was somehow different now that there wasn't a smaller form sitting next to her but Natasha refused to acknowledge it. 


	6. Fury vs the Lord of the ducks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fury comes back for a meeting with the Avengers, frustrated with Tony and the presence of the man's child he lashes out and lets the other's know the deep dark secret Tony's been hiding from them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you could say this is the last chapter as it's really the last wholly plot driven part but the last chapter is full of cute little snippets and a bit more story. So enjoy this one the last chapter will be up next Sunday!

Nick Fury glared across the table at Tony Stark, the billionaire was smirking back at him. He had the audacity to smirk back at him as they were surrounded by the rest of the team who were silently waiting to see how this would play out.

Tony arched a brow, silently inviting the man to talk. He truly wanted to hear what the pirate had to say about everything, more importantly, he wanted to see if the man had the balls to try and demand that he send Peter out of the room. The boy was just toddling around the room at the moment, though occasionally he’d wander to a member of the team to seek out attention and show them things. They reacted accordingly, douting on the boy before sending him on his way. With each action, Tony saw the tick in the man’s good eye getting worse. It was really just a matter of time before the man blew a fuse and as much as he didn’t want to expose Peter to shouting, he had a feeling that if that should happen it would be the last time. Peter had won the team over, big time. So much so that nine out of ten times he found Peter with one of the team rather than his babysitter who had been transitioned from 24/7 to on-call for whenever the Avengers were needed. Peter spent all his time with Tony and his team if he was there at the tower and the billionaire knew that they loved the kid. Nick Fury, however, did not.

“Stark.” The man stated coldly. “Get him out of here.”

“Why?” Tony questioned with a tilted head as he leaned back preciously in his seat. “He’s not doing anything but wandering about, asking Steve to gauge his art skills or chatting up Barton with his new words.” At that, the man looked to the archer. “He learned a new word the other day, by the way, he now knows how to say no nap.”

Barton chuckled at the man’s witty retort. “Bet you lov-”

“Can we get back on target.”

Barton sighed, looking back at the director of shield. “Sir, Peter’s not going to distract us.”

“He already has.” The man bit out at the archer's lie. “He doesn’t belong here.”

“This is his home so I’m gonna go out on a limb and say uh, yeah. You’re the one whose crashing the party.” Tony remarked coolly as Peter wandered back to him, he lifted the boy up into his lap and smiled back at Fury. “He’s doing no harm to your little spiel and we both know he doesn’t have what it takes to be an international spy like Romanoff at this age. He’s more interested in ducks, so unless you have something to say about those I think your secrets are safe.”

Steve snorted, clearing his throat when Fury sent a sharp reprimanding look his way. Tony rolled his eyes, it was clear that Fury was being more of an ass than anything given how uptight the group was when they’d previously been relaxed. Yeah, Fury was the one who didn’t fit into this scenario.

“So, you wanted to talk about the new reflector tech right?” Tony threw out helpfully. “Got a few chinks in its armor but I think me and Brucey bear can figure it out.”

Bruce shook his head a fond smile on his face before he told Fury. “There’s a power link problem that’s causing the wave field to distort. We’re finding a fix for it but it’ll take a bit of time.”

Fury at least seemed somewhat appeased by that. “But it's doable.”

“Definitely.” Tony chimed as he petted Peter’s hair. “Though I’ll need the codes to that super-secret hanger that you think I don’t know exists.”

Fury's whole body jerked tightly. “What?” His voice was ice cold.

“You know the one, it's somewhere...Say floating over the Indian ocean at the moment?” Tony smiled. “I can’t upgrade things if I don’t know what tech it's running.” He sang. Tony wasn’t the only one to jump a bit when Fury slammed his hand on the table.

“Damn it Stark! You cannot go hacking into the shield database just bec-”

Tony sighed as he cradled a startled Peter into himself, rubbing the crying boys back as he glared back at Fury. “Was that necessary? You throw more tantrums than he ever has FYI and yes, I do get to hack your shit because it's necessary for me to actually do the stupid jobs that you seem to want to foister onto me and Bruce.” He hushed Peter in the next breath trying to calm the boy.

“You don’t have clearance for that.”

Tony rolled his eyes at the lame retort. “Well, in that case, you don’t get your fancy smanshy reflector fields.” He smiled back at the man. “Two can play that game director.” 

“We had an agreement Stark.”

Tony raised a brow at the man's attempts to get him to cave. “Um...Pretty sure that you threatened my livelihood, made unreasonable demands, barked orders to these people right here that really have no incentive whatsoever to do what you say anymore and then went back on our little deal...You know the one that says that you give me my dad's records.” Tony patted Peter’s back, whispering into his hair to try and calm the boy.

“Records?” Steve glanced from Tony to Fury.

Natasha and Clint shared a look before looking back at Fury. “Thought you did that after the palladium poisoning.”

Tony snorted as he rubbed Peter’s back, the kid was quieting down thankfully. “No, he gave me the films, and the base stuff to help me figure things out...J was the one who figured out that there’s more. It’s just a bit beyond J’s abilities to get to it at the moment, which I can assure you I’m fixing.” Tony smiled back at the enraged man. “So, let's have it. Hand over my father's records, the whole shebang Fury or walk out that door and never come back.” Tony’s easy-going attitude shifted into the cold persona of a businessman in an instant. “Because I got the team, we’re all settled here and ready to defend the world, all that jazz. But come hell or high water I ain’t answering to you, whether they choose to do so is up to them.”

Fury stood up abruptly, his chair making a sharp grinding noise as it was pushed back in haste. “You work for Shield.”

Tony snorted at the man's assumptions. “No, I really don’t. I never signed on, I sure as shit don’t have a pension from you for risking my neck. I never once agreed to sign anything that would make you my owner, so you can see yourself out that door any old time pal.” Tony waved a hand.

“Tony.” Steve treaded carefully, shaking his head before turning his sights onto the director. “Sir, Starks right in some things. We’ve done what we could to protect the world, New York, we’re working as a team...Learning to work as a team. That was what you wanted.”

Fury glared back at Steve. “This team is under Shields supervision Rogers, what Shield decides is what you do. You follow our orders.”

Steve sank back in his chair, he knew that he just didn’t like the discrepancy of Tony fighting at every turn against the man who was being harsher than he needed to be. 

Clint shook his head, offering up freely. “Gotta say, our team is tighter now than it was that day so I think we’re doing something right.”

“Same.” Natasha smiled back at the director. “Stark’s fulfilled his end of the deal, he and Banner are working on new tech.”

Fury glared back at the spies. “He hasn’t delivered.”

“But we’re working on it.” Bruce supplied to the impatient man. “Tony and I have spent hours working out the problems, and some of it...With less than stellar intel, information that would make this job easier. I understand the secrecy, but if you want us to work with you information is needed.”

“You get what I decide you need to know, nothing else.” The man’s tight words had Bruce slumping back in defeat. “It's up to you to fix things, do your jobs.”

Tony scoffed, looking Banner dead in the eye. “Wannabe hired by SI?”

Bruce blinked in surprise at the offer. “What?”

“Technically speaking your contract with Shield is what’s loosely based as a subcontractor. You have no allegiance to them as you’re an outsourced entity, meaning that if you’re given a better offer you can accept.” Tony smiled back at the man who was blinking back at him in shock. “So, I reiterate, wanna work for SI? We pay a hell of a lot better than Shield...Then again, we just pay.”

Bruce smirked at Tony’s not so subtle jab at Shield’s current verdict in reimbursing him for time and effort, namely, lack of imprisonment. “Tony.”

“Hey.” The man shrugged. “If you think a jumpsuit is your jam far be it from me to say that orange isn’t your color. All I’m saying is that in this version, the grass is noticeably greener on the other side and it has nothing to do with the other guy.”

Bruce chuckled. “Right.”

A harsh clearing of a throat had both men looking at Fury, the man glared back at Bruce. “Your contract with Shield is non negotiable if you void it-”

“He goes to prison.” Tony pouted. “Unless of course, he has someone willing to take the heat, do the whole parole officer gig.” Tony smiled at Banner. “I’m a horrible slave driver FYI, no rest for the wicked.”

Bruce looked back at Fury making it clear to the man. “I don’t want to rock the boat, I’m just a scientist, I sure don’t want to deal with anyone trying to take me in...I know the other guy won’t go for it. I think Tony’s right about some things when it comes to how Shield operates...Not everything.” He managed to look the other man in the eye, Tony shrugged accepting of that. “But somethings. Shield oversees everything, I understand that director but you’re relying on me and Tony, on Stark Industries to fill needs that Shield has. That’s a partnership.”

“Howard si-”

“Howard’s dead,” Tony interjected before that argument could get off the ground. “And unless I’m wrong he didn’t offer me up as an infant as some kind of Shield sacrifice. I mean I know he had his moments, but even he wasn’t that much of a dick.” Fury’s jaw tightened. “And unless you have some secret shares of the company you really don’t have a leg to stand on. So take a deal Fury, Banner stays here, signs on with SI so none of that prison bullshit goes further. Me and him work on tech that we may feel so inclined to share with Shield providing that they disclose everything that it will be used for and I do mean everything. You release my father's files and we go on our merry way.” Tony waved a hand to Steve, Clint, and Natasha. “They’re free agents, they can do whatever they want...Well, technically so are you Banner but you know in a more this is your sanctuary type of thing.” Banner nodded back at him. “So if they choose to stay on your good side and report in like hapless little sheep than that’s their choice, but I’m not jumping through hoops for you.”

Fury reached into his waistcoat and pulled out a folder, throwing it onto the table and letting its contents slide out across the polished wood. Tony frowned down at it before raising a brow back at him. “Mary Fitzpatrick.”

Everyone looked to Tony when they saw the man tense, his hand wrapping around Peter’s head as the boy clutched tightly to him. “Get out.”

“Interesting discovery don’t you think? I mean...I gotta hand it to you when it came to burying i-”

Tony was on his feet in an instant, his own chair scraping the floor only to crash backward. Peter gave a cry of alarm but Tony held him tight against himself. “Shh, it’s fine Pete. Mr. Pirate here was just leaving.”

Fury smirked at the suddenly rattled man. “I wasn’t. I was too busy calling you out on your own bullshit Stark, I’m not the only one with secrets now am I?”

Tony swallowed tightly refusing to look down at the photos on the table, he saw Natasha reach out to take one. She frowned, glanced from him to Fury. 

“What is this?”

“Plane crash.” Fury retorted. “Mary Fitzpatrick and Richard Parker’s crash site...Hard info to come by, mostly because Mr. Stark here felt it was necessary to bury stuff himself isn’t that right?”

Tony glared hotly back at Fury. “Not far enough apparently, I won’t make that mistake with you I assure you that.”

“Tony.” Steve shook his head as he got up to try and mediate things. “What’s all of this?” He waved his hand at the photos. “You tried to cover it up?”

“I tried to bury it.” Tony snapped back at the man. “Just like they deserved.”

Steve looked torn, he was confused by the statements and wary of what all this could mean. “W-Were you involved?”

Tony snorted at the man’s sudden inclination to think he had something to do with Peter’s mother's murder. “No, I didn’t even know about Peter when they died.” Steve nodded, a small hopeful look returning to his face that had the mechanic stating. “I buried it because there were people after them, people who didn’t need to know that Peter existed.”

The group frowned. “He’s just a kid,” Clint muttered. “What could he possibly give them?”

“DNA.”

Every person as the table looked at Fury, the man was smiling back at Stark. “Isn’t that right?”

“We’re done,” Tony remarked coldly at the man's smirking face, the taunting look of him having won staring back at him. “We are done Fury, you come near me or Peter and I wi-”

“Tony.” Bruce frowned as the man was getting more and more worked up. “What is he talking about? Why would anyone care about Peter’s DNA?”

Tony held the man's gaze a wavering look on his own face, one that spoke plainly as to how worried he was about all of this he was as he clung to Peter. “Richard Parker Bruce, that’s why.”

It only took a moment before Bruce looked ashen, he shook his head. “No.”

Tony glared back at Fury. “Get out.”

“You realize that unde-”

“GET OUT!” Peter cried against his shoulder, but Tony just covered his ears as best he could when he shouted, knowing it was too little for the boy. “J, fire up the iron legion.”

“Starting prototypes.” The mechanical voice of the AI droned.

Fury frowned at that. “Iron-”

Tony smirked at the suddenly not so cocky man. “You got your fighters, I got mine. Granted mine don’t bleed.” Tony turned to leave giving a parting. “Good luck Fury, your jets gonna need a bit of a fixer-upper.” As he paused before the door, he took a deep breath. Glaring over his shoulder. “Don’t fuck with my kid, I will tear every damn carrier you have or even dream of having until the end of my days.” Tony looked at the others stonily before leaving with an upset Peter, crooning to the kid about the noise.

The group turned to look at Fury, they winced at the same time he did when there was a loud explosion from above. The roof if any of them had any doubt.

“Target is destroyed.” Jarvis droned. “Have a safe flight director Fury.”

Fury glared at the ceiling before sending sharp looks to Romanoff and Barton. “We’re done here.” He sent a warning look to Banner. “You think he’s protecting you for you?” He gave a sharp bark of laughter. “No, it was always the long game Banner, you’re the only one in this place that might have an iota of a clue of what’s wrong with his brat.”

“He’s not a brat,” Clint stated sharply, surprising Fury. 

Fury shook his head at the archer. “He’s a science experiment gone wrong Barton, Frankenstein's monster all over again. Uncontrollable, volatile, and mad-”

“He’s a kid!” Bruce shouted everyone tensed, he was the last one anyone wanted to see angry. Bruce shook his head, glaring at Fury. “He’s a kid, he didn’t ask for any of that. Peter’s innocent in this, what that bastard did to him...He’s not a monster.”

Fury stayed silent on that front, though they could all tell he didn’t buy it. “Whatever he is, he needs to be contained.”

“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

Fury looked over to a frowning Steve. “What?” He growled.

“You agreed for us all to come here, insisted that Clint and Natasha join us despite having places with you at shield. You wanted them to spy on Tony, on the kid.”

Natasha frowned at her boss. “You never gave any orders, if that’s tru-”

“I just didn’t ask the questions yet now did I?” The man stated sharply. “I knew who he was just like I knew that if he started to show any inclination to being what I know him to be that you’d come and inform me.”

Natasha begrudgingly nodded, it's true she’d do so. Her and Clint both no matter how cute and innocent they thought the boy was. Their training would dictate that the threat be labeled.

“You lied.” Steve glared. “He’s just a kid Fury.”

“He’s not. He’s just the only success that Richard Parker ever had.”

“Success?” Bruce lunged forward and snatched up the papers, beginning to sort through them. The group watched anxiously as the man tried to piece together what little information was there.

Fury waited patiently, smirking, it didn’t take long. Banner looked up at him and smirked, forcing the larger man to scowl. “What?”

Bruce smiled. “He’s asymptomatic.”

“And?” Fury growled.

“He could go the rest of his life as just a normal kid.” Bruce laughed as he held up some of the papers. “As you said, he was a success. He lived, that’s the success Fury.” He tossed the papers aside and headed for the door remarking in kind. “Come near that kid and I’ll let the other guy chat with you, Tony might have wanted me here because he was intending to use me...But I expect as much nowadays.” He glared back at Fury. “At least his cause is a noble one, he’s just trying to save his kid.” He stormed out of the conference room.

Clint’s jaw tightened at the implications Bruce had left behind. “What’d he do to the kid?”

“Tore him apart and put him back together,” Steve uttered, the same thing that Tony had told them months ago. Fury gave a nod in return.

“He did that, and more. That child could be the next big threat, he could be the thing that the Avengers-”

“He’s a kid!” Clint shouted back at his boss. “For fuck's sake Fury, he’s a kid. A kid whose terrified of shouting and can’t say a goddamn word despite having so much to say. I really don’t think that the next big threat to the world is a six-year-old who loves ducks!”

Natasha and Steve smirked, chuckling a bit at the man’s enraged response that sounded so absurd. 

Natasha smiled back at Fury. “You want me to keep an eye on the kid, I will.” She stated with a firm nod. “But I agree with Clint on this one, kids harmless.”

“He might not be in the future.”

“Then we deal with it in the future.” Steve cut in. “But for now, he’s just a kid.”

Fury glared back at all of them. It wasn’t the answer he was hoping for when he revealed Stark’s secret to the room. It seemed to be that he had fewer allies in the tower than he’d anticipated.

***********

Tony was pacing, rocking Peter as the boy hiccuped into his neck. “Shh, it’s alright bud I’m sorry I shouted.” He kept going back and forth, back and forth. Reassuring the boy over and over again that he wouldn’t be shouting again and that the mean pirate was gone. Good lord, how Fury found out. Tony shook his head, he couldn’t go there, it didn’t matter now. The man knew, and he was going to use that information for his own benefit. He was going to try and take Peter from him, he was sure of it. Tony’s pacing picked up as his mind devolved into a series of what if’s. What if he sent Barton or Natasha to hurt the kid? To take him for Fury? What if he sent Banner to do tests on him? Wha- Tony twisted abruptly, glaring sharply when the man he’d just been thinking about came striding into the room. He should have locked Peter’s floor from them all, god he was stupid.

Bruce smiled sadly at a glaring Tony, he knew the man was on guard. He was cradling Peter to himself tightly as he rocked them. “It's okay.”

“The hell it is.” Tony hissed lowly so as not to upset his son.

“Alright.” Bruce smiled. “It sucks, but nothing is going to happen to Peter.”

Tony paused in his rocking, narrowing his eyes at the man. “Fury won’t stop, he wants answers and that man-”

“Can go to hell,” Bruce replied shocking Tony in the process. “Ah, sorry for the bad language.” The scientist frowned down at Peter, Tony chuckled at that.

“I don’t know if you recall but I was just in a shouting match with Nick Fury and the words there weren’t so kid-friendly.”

“Fair enough.” Bruce sighed. “My point is Fury tried to get me on his side, about the whole thing that you’re using me.” Tony flinched. “I get it, most people want me for something if not for the green guy than because of my knowledge. You just wanted me because of my previous work with genetics, you were worried about Peter.”

“Of course I am!” Tony hissed as he rocked Peter in his arms. “Damn it Bruce, the shit that bastard did...I-Its my kid.”

“I know.” Bruce nodded. “And eventually we’ll go through the play by play of whatever information you’ve gathered. I’ll help you and Peter as much as I can Tony, but there’s a good chance I won’t be able to change anything. We’re lucky, he’s asymptomatic.”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, small mercy right?” He gave a mirthless huff of laughter.

“Better than the alternative,” Bruce reassured the anxious man. “Peter’s healthy at least from what I can tell.” He chuckled. “I’m not a pediatrician though.”

Tony snorted. “I think you’re a step up from that Bruce.”

“Fair. My point was that just looking at him, nothing's wrong...We can go over whatever info you have, do a couple base tests but if I had to guess Tony. If I really had to put money down on whether or not this would affect him later on...No.” Bruce smiled and shook his head. “He’d have shown some kind of symptoms by now if something was really wrong with his genomes.”

“He doesn’t talk.”

Bruce sighed as the man latched onto any and all bad things in this scenario. “Yeah, and you already explained that...Now that I know what happened or at least can piece together, the whole nonverbal thing makes a lot more sense. It’s not a symptom of the gene experimentation, its a symptom of trauma.”

Tony took a deep breath, nodding his head. “Right. Yeah, I know that.” He smiled tightly as he rocked Peter, the boy had gone quiet. Sniffling here or there as he clutched tiredly to him. “It’s alright underoos, I know it's been a rough day.” Tony sighed, shaking his head. “How about a nap huh?” He smiled wanly when the boy didn’t argue against it. Nodding Tony headed towards the nearby couch. Sitting down he snatched up a nearby blanket and wrapped it around Peter who was still clinging to him. Adjusting them so Peter was curled up in his lap Tony surprised Bruce when he pulled at his own tie until he got it up and over his head to toss it aside before he opened the buttons of his shirt enough to make the arc reactor show.

“Um?”

Tony smirked back at the scientist who now was both confused and uncomfortable. “He likes the glow.”

“Ah.” Bruce smiled, watching on as Peter snuggled up to his father's chest, a small hand coming up to trace the lights that were emitted from the arc reactor.

“Yeah Pete, that’s me.” Tony chuckled as the boy stroked the device that was inserted into his chest. Giving a shaky breath, Tony looked back at Bruce. “I’m sorry...I just, I don’t know anyone else that might be able to look at that crap and actually understand any of it. Nobody I trust anyway.”

Bruce sucked in a breath, Tony trusted him? Smiling back, he assured the worried man. “We can work it all out. I mean, after me and Steve he should be easy right?”

Tony gave a shocked huff of laughter. “Right.” He nodded. “What’s a mutated six-year-old compared to a super soldier from the 1940s and giant green rage monster?”

“Exactly.” Bruce smiled at the man’s humor. He looked back down to Peter, such a curious little kid, a good kid, he never should have been subjected to whatever Richard Parker did to him. He smiled softly as the tired boy had stopped stroking the arc reactor and was now just snuggled up next to it, eyes closed as he napped against his father's chest.

Tony and Bruce looked sharply towards the hallway when footsteps sounded, both men frowned when Clint appeared. The archer paused, swallowed tightly under their scrutiny and said. “So I might be fired from Shield now and I can’t honestly know how my wife is going to react to that one.”

Tony smirked. “Wanna work at SI?”

Clint laughed at the man’s false offer, he treaded carefully closer to the two men who were seated on a couch. He glanced about before asking when he didn’t see Peter. “You put him down for a nap?”

Tony smirked raising his hand to point down at his lap. The archer came forward and looked over the back of the couch, nodding then frowned. “Why is your shirt open?”

Bruce chuckled at the man’s confusion to the same thing he’d just learned. “Peter likes the glow.”

Clint hummed. “Guess that works. Kinda like a night light.” He smiled when Tony glared at him for that comment. “I’m sorry.” He apologized to the bewildered man. “Fury never gave me any orders to spy on you, Natasha’s as miffed as I am. We’re used to being soldiers, used for our skills, but it always came with orders.”

“Until a six-year-old was involved,” Tony replied. “Asshole knew you were a dad, knew you wouldn’t do this lightly or at least I don’t think you’re that much of an asshole.”

“Thanks.” The man uttered dryly.

“You’re welcome. Point is he wanted enough proof to damn Peter so you’d be on his side. After all, he’s just a cute six-year-old, doesn’t exactly scream monster does he?”

Clint shook his head. “He’s just a kid...Fury actually gave that a spin, by the way, whole he could be the next threat to the Avengers.” Clint rolled his eyes as Tony scowled, his gaze shooting down to his son. “Listen, man, I told Fury, I honestly don’t think that the next thing after aliens is going to be a six-year-old who likes ducks.”

Tony laughed, his head jerking upright as he laughed at the man’s comment. “Cause it all comes down to the ducks.”

“Sure. I mean I don’t know any supervillain who goes on about ducks like that kid.” Clint shrugged. “I mean, unless he somehow has the ability to amass an army of them I think we’re good.”

Tony snorted at the stupid idea of Peter's make-believe superpowers. “No, no duck powers in sight.” He gently carded his fingers through Peter’s hair. Giving a remorseful expression to his son who was sleeping, ignorant to the true turmoil going on around them. “You realize that Fury’s going to be on your ass, he’s not going to let this go so easily.”

Clint hummed as he considered that, Tony wasn't wrong there Fury would be riding his ass about it. “I also know that he’s stubborn enough to realize he needs me. We’ll hash things out, he can only push so much.”

Tony looked up, stared the man dead in the eye and stated. “Push comes to shove you’ll choose your family over mine Barton, can’t fault you for that but Fury’s got your number.”

Clint frowned at the inlaid threat there. “He’s neve-”

“You’ve never told him to pound sand before,” Tony informed the man with a smirk. “Things change Barton, he feels threatened enough, feels like he’s losing too much ground...He’ll do whatever he thinks will get him what he wants.” Then because it needed to be said. “Or you could just come work for SI and have your family move here...Just saying.”

Clint smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Tony grinned back, his eyes darting past the man when he heard footsteps, he was ready for another battle though he didn’t relish one. Barton turned too, smirking when he caught sight of Steve. “Cap.”

Steve smirked, coming to stand beside the archer. He looked at Tony a moment before his gaze shot down to Peter. “Why’s your shi-”

The men laughed at the poor man’s confusion, causing Steve to look between them all. “I’m missing something.”

“Don’t feel bad, I asked the same thing.” Clint patted the man’s shoulder. “Seems our little lord of the ducks likes the arc reactor.”

“Lord of the -What?”

Tony chuckled as Clint laughed for causing the man's confusion. “Just a joke Rogers, cause you know my sons the next supervillain.”

Steve sighed, finding no humor in any of that. “He’s not.” It was a flat statement.

“Oh, I know that any reasonable person knows that...But then we all knew that Fury was a few screws loose right?”

Steve was resigned to hearing the mechanics continued barbs against Fury, not that he didn’t think the other man had earned a few given what he’d spouted off about Peter. “Romanoff’s telling him her opinion on the matter, I already said mine. Peter’s nothing but a kid.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Tony beamed up at the man as he continued to stroke the kid's hair. “Think he’d be pretty upset if the guy who lets him bathe in paint decided to jump ship.”

Steve chortled. “He doesn’t bathe in it.”

Tony arched a brow at the man's disbelief at just how covered Peter had gotten during their little play dates. “Do I need to tell you where I managed to find some?” Clint laughed at that, being a father himself he knew of all the glorious adventures of cleaning up one's kid.

“He has fun.”

“That he does, and May’s rather fond of his creations. They hung up the green one at their apartment.”

“That’s nice.”

“What is?”

Everyone turned to see Natasha striding in with purpose. “Kids artwork is hung up at home,” Clint replied to his partner.

“Huh, never saw it around here.”

“Other home,” Tony informed her before questioning. “Where is Fury?”

The spy smirked back at the curious and wary father, relishing it a bit when she was able to say. “Hailing a cab since you blew up his jet.”

Tony grinned. “Hey its all still there, he just has to find someone with enough expertise to fix it.”

“Uh-huh.” She peered down at the boy in his lap.

Tony half expected her to ask about his shirt, everyone else had but Natasha didn’t pry, rather choosing to tell him flat out. “I’m spying on you.” Tony glared in response. “Just in case he asks.”

"Aren’t you supposed to be undercover to do that?”

She shrugged. “Pretty sure he blew my cover first, not that I was aware of this mission, to begin with.” There was a sour note to her voice just then.

“He’s my kid Natasha, Fury’s got no business with him,” Tony told her sternly.

“I have to give reports.” Natasha didn’t allow him to interject as she followed. “Not my fault if the report is a detailed description of what book the kid reads sitting next to me. I can only spy as well as my target does stuff, he’s pretty tame, doesn’t do much.”

Tony nodded. “Just so we’re clear.”

Natasha smiled, leaning over the couch to reach down and pet Peter’s head, Natasha met Tony’s eyes as she did so. “There’s a reason Clint’s kids like me.”

“Not cause you’re a super-spy?” He challenged.

Natasha winked as she stood back up. “I know a bad guy when I see them Stark, been in this business long enough to weed them out. That kid who can’t even read a full book is not a threat.”

“He can read.” Tony defended the kid. “He just doesn't...Show it all that well.” The others rolled their eyes. “Oh, shut up Bartons the only one who tried to advance any of that, the rest of you are just freeloaders.”

“I let him paint.”

“Alright, fine. You’re not a freeloader.” Tony muttered to Steve. “You’re his art therapist or whatever.”

Steve chuckled. “Sure.”

Tony gave a big sigh, looking down at his son he nodded. “Peter’s a good kid, he couldn’t hurt a fly...I know, I’ve watched him try.” He chuckled as he squeezed the boy into himself tighter before sighing. He looked out to the others. “Who knew our second act as Avengers would be to tell the director of Shield to piss off because he’s got the yearning to pick a fight about a six-year-old? I did not see that one coming.”

They all nodded.

“Don’t forget the army of ducks.”

Tony smirked back at Clint. “Yeah, can’t forget that.” He refused to explain to the others who hadn’t been there for that conversation. He just trailed his fingers through Peter’s hair and promised himself that there was no way on this planet that Fury was getting near his kid. And shockingly, Tony wasn’t alone in that, it helped ease the fear that lurked in his heart from the group finding out about Peter. The kid got himself one hell of a team to watch over him, best damn babysitters Tony could have hired.


	7. Not what they expected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A life with Peter is something the Avengers hadn't anticipated but one they enjoy none the less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is folks, the last chapter of not what they expected. I wanted to thank everyone who has continued to come back and read this cute little story and all those wonderful comments. I hope you all enjoy this last chapter.

The group was gathered to watch a movie, a team-building exercise or so they claimed if anyone was to ask. They were in the process of arguing over what movie to watch when their attention was pulled to a small form who came darting into the room and climbed up onto the couch between Steve and Clint.

“Woah short stuff what’s the hurry?” Peter shook his head, miming a finger over his mouth. “Oh?” Clint smirked looking over the back of the couch as a minute later Tony came prowling into the room.

“Peter I swear to god kid, you are not stealthy.”

The adults chuckled as Peter ducked down low on the couch as if he thought that might matter. Tony looked over the back of the couch and smiled. “Hey, hi...Yeah, I found you. Now, how about you come with me for a bath and then I won't have to explain to Uncle Ben why you skipped this nightly ritual when he comes to get you?”

Peter shook his head. “Yeah, I wasn’t really asking it was more a rhetorical question.” Tony leaned over the back of the couch and grabbed Peter, the boy squirmed but ended up losing the battle as Tony hefted him up. He gave a nod to the group. “For heroes, you guys tend to hide supervillains an awful lot.” They snorted at the man's reference to his own kid. “Come on duckling lord, time for a bath.”

The adults smirked to each other, laughing when they heard Tony exclaim. “No I don’t care how many times you sign that, you don’t get to choose when you have a bath! Yes, now!”

*********

Peter bounced up and down, Clint smirked as he prepared the bow for the kid. “Alright, you ready?” Peter nodded his head eagerly as the archer came to kneel down handing him the bow. “Alright, steady there.” He helped show the boy how to hold it properly. “Good.” Clint smiled at the boy as he handed a dummy arrow to Peter, the boy dropped the bow in his attempts to keep it primed. Chuckling Clint went through the motions of helping Peter to stabilize the whole thing gently drawing the bowstring back with the kid as he notched the arrow. 

“Alright, so you see that there.” He pointed to where the notch on the bow was. “That’s where your arrow’s going to go, so focus real hard and line it up with the bullseye.” Peter nodded, shaking the bow with each motion much to the archer's amusement. The boy's tongue peeked out of his lips as he held the bow with quivering arms, releasing the arrow and losing his grasp of the bow at the same time as the arrow flew a few feet, never hitting the target. 

Peter huffed, looking back to Clint as if to say 'it didn't work'. The archer smirked. “You wanna know a secret?” Peter nodded eagerly. “I was that bad too when I was your age.” Peter smiled, looking down at the bow he picked it up and held it up to the man. “Wanna try again?” Peter nodded. “Good, let's get you another arrow.” Clint retrieved another one and helped the boy stabilize himself once more, waiting, watching as Peter loosed another arrow, it went farther than time but still didn’t hit the target. Clint raised a brow when Peter looked back at him. “Again?” Peter smiled.

**********

Natasha hummed as a small body climbed up into the chair with her, she shifted her legs to make it easier for him. Smiling into her book as Peter curled up into her side with his book. She glanced over to see what subject he was on today, Stark kept giving him different technology books, but her lips tilted upwards when she saw this one was art. Clever Steve, clever. She left Peter to peruse whatever the book had to offer him, being immersed in her own book. Time flew by easily as the pair enjoyed the silence of each other's company and the warm presence of another body near their own. 

Natasha turned to regard Peter when the boy tugged on her. “What?” The boy held up his book. “Are you done?” Peter nodded his head. “Well, you can go find another one or go do something else.” She offered the kid a little confused as to what Peter hoped to get out of this 'conversation'. Peter shook his head, opening his book once more but rather than starting back over the boy leaned over into her and showed her something. Natasha smiled, looking down at the boy when he stared up at her. “I know, ducks. Maybe Steve can teach you to paint those huh?” Peter nodded eagerly earning a small chuckle from Natasha.

**********

Steve sighed, he knew it shouldn’t surprise him and all but man could this kid get messy. He smiled at Peter who was literally covered in paint, his hair had bits of orange to it, his shirt was plastered with pinks and greens. His socked feet were adorned in blue and his pants were a mishmash of all the colors the boy had used as he kept wiping his hands off on them. 

“Hope Tony wasn’t expecting those clothes to last.” He murmured to himself. Peter shook his head as if to answer him causing Steve to laugh. “Yeah, bet he’s used to this huh?” Peter nodded.

The boy turned to regard the painting that he’d done that day, it was still drying but had been set aside by Steve so as to make sure it didn’t get knocked into. Steve shook his head, the kid had been trying to imitate what he was doing that day, and although it was a cute attempt you clearly could not see the shape of the New York skyline in that painting which was more a conglomeration of color than a representation of the buildings that made up New York City. Glancing to his own painting, Steve smirked, yeah he was a bit ahead of Peter, not that the kid seemed to care. Looking back he patted the kids head only to grimace and pull his hand back, orange. 

“Right...Let's see about cleaning you up huh?”

Peter gave a nod holding up his hands which were covered in various patterns of colors. “Yeah, bit dirty there.” Steve smiled as he drew the boy out of the art studio and down the hall into the bathroom where he picked him up and put him on the counter. “So, think next time you’ll be ready to paint ducks?” Peter clapped his hands excitedly, nodding. Steve sighed as the boys still wet hands spattered paint on the counter. “Well, I did that one,” Steve muttered to himself before smiling to the boy who had tilted his head. 

“We’ll work on painting ducks next time, alright wash up.” He began to clean his own hands, watching as Peter went through the motions himself ultimately needing another thorough cleaning by Steve as the six-year-olds rendition of clean was very different than adults. When Peter was at least somewhat presentable did the super-soldier lower the boy to the floor, ignoring the paint smears on his counter. Just another casualty of giving Peter access to paint, taking the boys now clean hand Steve told the boy as they walked to the elevator. 

“I’m sure your dad will be happy to hear that you can paint all of New York now.” He smirked to himself as Peter bounced on his feet nodding, leaving little blue streeks on the floor due to his stained socks. God how he was coming to love this kid. “Let’s go tell him all about it.” Peter nodded eagerly.

************

“Alright bud, I know you don’t like needles but Bruce here is just gonna poke your finger. That’s it.” Tony smiled at his crying son, Peter knew that the medbay wasn’t somewhere he liked. “I know.” Tony leaned forward to kiss the boy's head. “But I promise Peter, that’s all he needs then we can go get juice and watch a show alright?” Peter shook his head, Tony nodded his. Yeah, that was kinda stupid of him, juice did not make four years of trauma go away, looking over to Bruce who was kindly waiting for his go-ahead Tony sighed in a resigned fashion. “Come on then, best to just get it over with. I can handle the meltdown.” 

“Alright.” Bruce smiled at Peter as he rolled over in the chair, smiling to the crying boy. “I promise Peter just a small poke and then we’re all done.” Gently he took the boy's hand and wiped a finger with an alcohol swab. The boy was sniffling as he watched him like a hawk, not that Bruce expected anything else. Taking the lancet, he sent a look to Tony. 

The man wrapped his arms around his son and whispered. “There we go, big and brave now.” He nodded to Bruce. 

With a sharp click, the lancet pierced the boy's fingers. Peter cried, twisting into his father as Bruce quickly gathered some blood onto a few strips and a slide. Once he was done he set the samples aside and wiped the crying boy's finger, applying a bandage before releasing him. He gave a saddened look to the boy who was crying hysterically at being subjected to something that Bruce had no doubt reminded him of something he might have endured because of Richard. 

Tony gave Bruce a weak smile as he gathered Peter up in his arms, gently rocking the upset boy. “It’s alright Pete, it's all done.” He promised. “How long?” The inventor asked the scientist as he cradled his boy close.

“A couple of days,” Bruce replied as he put a slide of the boy's blood down into the microscope, he peered through it before turning to glance back at Tony. “I’ll let you know the moment I see anything.”

“Thanks.” Tony nodded. “I’m gonna go-”

Bruce smiled and gave an understanding nod. “He deserves juice...And ducks if you can pull that one-off.”

Tony laughed as he headed for the door with his very upset son. “I don’t have any ducks Banner, but I got juice.”

“Eh, one out of two isn’t bad,” Bruce smirked as he looked back through the lens of the microscope. 

*********

Tony ran a hand down his face, Peter was playing on the floor a few feet away from everyone as Bruce told them what he’d found. Namely, that Richard Parker was a monumental asshole.

“His genetic structure’s compromised.”

“How so?”

Bruce shook his head at his teammates, he knew that the majority of them wouldn’t understand anything he said. It was more for Tony than them, though they deserved to be on the same page. “I can’t find what he used Tony, I can’t...It was some sequenced entity itself.”

“So...He used a mutant to make a mutant?” Tony glared sharply at Barton, the man held up hands. “Sorry, just saying that’s how it sounds.”

Bruce sighed before taking the heat off of the archer. “He’s not wrong Tony. Richard Parker made something, I don’t know what that something was composed of, but whatever it was he then used that with Peter.”

“How dangerous is this to him?” Steve asked as he stared after the boy who was happily working on another rocket for his and Bruces rocket days. 

“Unchecked...Dangerous, but that’s the thing.” He told them in wonder. “It's stable.”

“It?” Natasha raised her brow.

“Whatever he combined into Peter, its stable, it’s not volatile like you might assume it would be.” Bruce sent a smile to Steve. “In essence, it’s a lot like you.”

Tony glanced from Steve to Banner. “Alright...So somehow he got ahold of sup-”

“No.” Bruce shook his head when Tony immediately assumed things. “This isn’t...That.”

“Then what is it!” Tony hissed, losing his temper now that he wasn’t getting any concrete answers.

“It’s organic Tony.”

“Organic? What like fruit?”

The others groaned at Steve, Clint snorted. “It wasn’t fruit Steve.”

Natasha shook her head at the super soldier's response, looking over to Bruce. “An animal?”

“That’s my guess, but again he created whatever this thing was...So I’m guessing an animal with another animal, cross genetics and then applied that to Peter.” He met Tony’s worried gaze. “Tony, he’s asymptomatic, his genetic anomalies are stable. This isn’t hurting him, this is a good thing.”

Tony gave a nod. Bruce was right, everything the man had found thus far was good, Peter was healthy, mutations aside. “Later on...Could it become an issue?”

Bruce sighed, shrugging. “I don’t know, this isn’t tested science Tony and since I don’t know exactly what was done-”

“Right.” Tony nodded sharply, no matter how many questions he might have there were only a limited number of answers Bruce could give him.

“We watch him.” Natasha smiled reassuringly at Tony. “I think he’ll kick up a fuss if he starts to feel off Stark, he complained relentlessly when Clint manage to cut his finger during their little archery tournament.”

Clint huffed, muttering sullenly. “He only cried a little, he was fine.”

Tony rolled his eyes as the two spies bickered over that day, why Clint was taking it upon himself to teach Peter archery of all things he didn’t know. He much more appreciated the sign language. Tony turned his head when Steve patted his shoulder. “He’s a happy kid Tony, Bruce says he’s fine and Bruce is pretty smart.”

Tony snorted. “Just a bit.” He shook his head at the man. “Go show the kid how to paint ducks Rogers...I’ll hash out future mutations with Bruce.”

Steve nodded, walking over to Peter and kneeling down to talk to him. Tony smiled softly as he saw how excited the boy got when Steve said they could go paint ducks. 

“He’ll be alright.” Tony gave a nod as he watched Steve take Peter with him back to the man’s art studio.

“I know,” Tony replied. “He’s got all of you.” Tony smiled back at Bruce. “Best damn babysitters a guy could have.”

Bruce rolled his eyes but didn’t contradict what he’d said, Tony figured the man agreed with him on some level. Regardless, Tony was grateful that they were there, he hadn’t anticipated becoming friends with them let alone trusting them with Peter but here they were. Tony allowing super-soldiers, spies and assassins and brilliant scientist who turned into a giant green rage monster to take care of his kid. Tony scoffed earning a questioning look from Bruce and the others. “I just got it.”

“Got what?”

Tony smiled at them. “There was no way in hell Peter was going to stick around with Sophie, you guys spoiled him with being the societal rejects that you are.”

They glared as Tony laughed at the great insight he’d come across. At least with the Avengers, he didn’t have to pay them, they were live-in babysitters and Peter loved each and every one of them. Tony couldn’t do better than that...Not unless he included a duck that is.

  
  



End file.
